Feria

Sorry it has taken so long for me to update about Feria. I have still be recuperating from the week's festivities.
Feria is a week long "fair" for lack of a better word. All the kids have off from school for the entire week. (yes, a second spring break for me!) At the end of my street there is a giant fairgrounds that holds thousands and thousands of casetas, or these little mini huts. Hut isn't exactly the right word for them because they are more than huts, but I don't really know how to describe them. Hopefully you have already seen the pictures. Well the casetas are owned by families and you have to be invited inside. Inside there is a bar and a kitchen where food and drinks are served and there is lots and lots of dancing. Of course my roommates and I have the hook ups and our Spanish friends have casetas, and have friends that have casetas so we rocked Feria all week long. During the day there are tons and tons of horses that parade around and people show off their money and status. Oh man- it was definitely my worst nightmare. Where there are horses there is horse poop, and where there is horse poop there is definitely a RANK oder. If anyone knows me they know that the one smell I can not stand in this world is the smell of horses. UGH!!! It was so hard not to walk around holding my nose, but I didn't want to be rude. AHHH I hope I never have to smell that again in my life! Jose kept telling me- its ok, once you have a few drinks you won't smell it anymore. haha I love the spanish way of life!
The typical drink of Feria is called a rebujito. Its manzanilla which is this white distilled apple wine that is really really strong and potent, but you mix it with sprite and it is DELICIOUS! probably a little too delicious since my roommates and I spent the entire week drunk. You buy it in jarros (jars) and everyone just takes turns buying one and then you drink it out of these little shot glasses. It is good stuff!
Along with all the casetas at Feria there is also the calle infierno (the street of hell). It is here where you find all the food vender's and the "midway." There are also the "attractions" as Spaniards call them, more commonly known to us Americans as the rides! Let me just say that the rides in Spain would NEVER pass in America. Half the rides you're not even strapped in and they all go WAY faster than they do in the states. Even the ferris wheel goes SOOOO FAST!!! What kind of a ferris wheel goes fast? That is suppose to be the slow romantic, or geezer ride (right dad? remember all our good times on the ferris wheel?) Man oh man I was shocked! But the best ride were the bumper cars, except in Spain they call them the coches locos (crazy cars) which is definitely fitting seeing as how you don't wear a seat belt and they go about 25 miles an hour! They really are crazy cars, but so crazy fun!!! My roommates and I hadn't laughed that hard in such a long time after being on the bumper cars!
Normally we would be out until about 5 or 6 in the morning and then sleep until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, have lunch and then start to get ready for another night at the Feria. Now, you need to know that none of my roommates or I had taken Sevillanos dance lessons before the Feria, but of course that didn't matter because our Spanish friends would NOT take no for an answer when it came to dancing. So how did we cope? Well we bought a few more jarros, drank up, and away we went. All the boys taught us how to dance, and it was so much fun. It's really hard to coordinate your feet with your arms and your hands while not looking at your feet and adding "pasion" or passion as Pablo continually told us. It was a good time. We basically just spent half the time flailing our arms around and moving our feet like idiots! Except for when they pulled us all on the stage to dance in front of everyone that was in the caseta...oh boy....not a good idea! Needless to say we made fools of ourselves, but did it with a smile :) The spaniard women weren't too happy with us since we were "stealing" the spaniard men away from them, but hey- we can't help it if we know how to dance better than them!! We got so many dirty looks from all the girls, but the boys wanted to dance with us, so it's not our fault!
It was a long week, but so worth it! We didn't end up wearing Mama's feria dresses because we were too scared that something would spill on them or something would happen to them, but this weekend we are all going to dress up in them and take pictures so I will be SURE to post them haha!

Side note: 1 month from today I will be stepping off the plane in Boston!!! I can't believe it has gone so fast! It really is bittersweet. I want to come home because I really want to see Mom and Dad, and the rest of the family and my friends, but I really am not ready to leave Spain. It has gone too fast. I can't wait till I graduate so I can move back here! I hope everyone is well, and happy that taxes are over. I know Sean is stoked!!
I miss and love you all so much!!! I can't wait to see you and show you pictures in person and tell all my stories!

Gareth comes on Saturday. We will be spending the weekend in Toledo, a city south of Madrid, and then next week we will be in Portugal for a few days. I'm pretty excited about that!! OH! and... Mama's birthday is on Sunday so we will definitely be celebrating!

BESOS!!!

Guinness- I've acquired the taste!

We spent our last day in Ireland back in Dublin since we had to fly out at the butt crack of dawn on Tuesday morning back to Sevilla. Michelle and I really wanted to go to the Guinness factory, so when we got back into the city, we stored our bags at the hostel and away we went. On our way over to the storehouse we stumbled upon Christchurch Cathedral which was BEAUTIFUL! Just when I thought I had seen all the cathedrals I would ever be able to handle in my life, we came across this one. It's so different from the Cathedrals in Spain. It was a lot simpler and much prettier. I liked it a lot if you can't already tell.
Guinness was SO SO SO fun! we toured the 7 story factory and learned all about the ingredients and the history behind this world famous beer. We did some taste testing and ultimately made it to the 7th floor which is a bar with 360 degree view of the entire city of Dublin. AMAZING! not to mention at the top you get a free pint of Guinness. I mean does it get much better than this? I THINK NOT!
All in all our trip to Ireland was fantastic. I loved every single minute of it, however I know my bank account didn't enjoy it. Ireland is MUCH more expensive than Spain. We were definitely happy to return to 1 euro drinks, and free meals at Mama's house. However, now that we've been back it hasn't stopped raining at all! I don't have school until next Monday because right now its Feria. I will be posting about next week once its all over. All I will say now is that we were out until the wee hours of the morning last night, drunk and dancing Sevillanas. I LOVE SPAIN!

V.I.P. in Castlebar

We took the train from Dublin to Castlebar on Saturday morning. Its about a 4 hour train ride across the country and it is a gorgeous ride! We saw tons of sheep, and cute little country homes, and lots of green grass, and for a little while, blue skies :) My two roommates and I stayed at the same B&B that Dad stayed at when he was in Castlebar, the Carragh House. It was so cute, and so cozy, and definitely worth every single euro! After a nice long nap, and nice long hot showers, Michelle, Raquelita, and I went to explore! Dad has sent me a list of the pubs and the people we needed to see so off we went. We started our night at Byrne's Pub, and met the infamous Mick Byrne. We was so excited to meet me, and instantly started pouring us beers. Before we were even half done with one beer a new one would be poured and brought to us. Needless to say I'm pretty sure I'm still full from all those beers. We watched a rugby match and met lots of Irish men! After Byrne's we went over to Cox's for dinner, where we had chowder and chicken sandwiches. Then we were off to McHale's where Dad said they pour the best pint of Guinness in all of Ireland. There I was suppose to meet Dom Malloy. When we went in it was around 8:30 and I asked the bartender if Dom was there, and she said yes and pointed him out to me, and off I went. I introduced myself and man oh man I have never seen so many Irish men more excited to see me! I met Dom Malloy, and Paul Doyle, and the Headmaster, and The Grimmer.
And then the drinks started coming. Guinness' and cokes for all! The best part is that Dom Malloy, Paul Doyle, and The Grimmer are Dad, Uncle Jim and Peter Ford in Irish form. Its just so fun to watch them all interact! After many drinks, and many comments about how much I look like dad, and many laughs, we decided to call it a night.
The next morning, Dom Malloy picked us up in his Mercedes Benz and chauffeured us to Westport, the next town over from Castlebar. We went to Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St. Patrick first arrived in Ireland and drove out all the snakes. Its really cool because on the top of the mountain there is a small white church and once a year at the end of July about 25,000 people make a pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick for mass given by the Bishop. We didn't climb it- I forgot to pack my hiking shoes and my walking stick, but its definitely on my list of things to do before I die. We climbed up a little of the ways to see the view of Clew Bay, where there is an island for every single day of the year. The view was AMAZING. Ireland is BEAUTIFUL! After we went to The Westport House, which is this estate from the 19th century that is now preserved and still has all its original furniture. It was really cool to see the inside. We even go to go into the dungeons! Weird and definitely creepy, but cool! We had Chinese food for lunch with Dom back in Castlebar, and then went back to the B&B to rest up for another evening at Byrne's. When we went back to Byrne's we hadn't even taken our jackets off and our beers were poured and waiting for us on the counter. Talk about V.I.P! I got to see the dummy page that dad made for Mick pretending that we won the masters. We met these guys in the pub and I told them about the page, and they didn't believe me for one second that it was my dad who had made it. But Mick verified and then my cool points rose through the roof. We took lots of pictures, and Mick even let us come behind the bar! After a few beers, and a few Guinness' we headed over to this Indian restaurant (Mick's favorite). Mick insisted that he take us for dinner. It was my first time having Indian food, and surprisingly, it was rather good! Of course we all ate way to much, and when Mick wanted us to come back to the pub for more drinks I really had to draw the line. Of course he played the "your a Higgins' and your Irish, drink up" Low blow Mick. Low blow!
We finally dragged ourselves home, and packed up our stuff for our early train back to Dublin Monday morning. Oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention...while we were in Castlebar...IT SNOWED!!!!! man oh man I thought I had fully escaped the winter, but nope! It found me. It found me in my "homeland"!

the grass really IS greener in Ireland!

The rumors are true, the grass really IS greener in Ireland!!! but thats probably because in most places they don't let you walk on the grass! When we first arrived we checked into our hostel in the city, the 'Bunkhouse.' Then we were on our way. The first day we went to Trinity College, and to the Temple Bar district. The college was BEAUTIFUL! I think I am going to transfer there! The Temple Bar, which is one of Dublin's most famous bars was cool too! Michelle and I had our first pints of Guinness there, but of course we had shots of grenadine in it to make it a little sweeter! It definitely is an acquired taste, but I must say, after my trip to Ireland, I think I have acquired it :) We met these three guys from Switzerland, who ironically were also staying at the same hostel as we were, and so we had a few drinks with them and I learned the swiss german word for poop: goggle! haha I'm sure that will come in handy one day. After drinks at the Temple Bar we went souvenir shopping and of course the very first song I hear in Ireland is Oh Danny Boy! fitting of course :) It was really fun being in a foreign country but seeing "Higgins" on everything. I felt so important! Our first day we lucked out and never got caught in the famous Ireland rain, but day 2 wasn't so lucky. Our second day in Ireland we went to explore Dublin Castle, and spent a lot of time in the castle gardens. Make sure to check out the new pictures!!! After the gardens and some more shopping it began to rain...REALLY HARD...so we made our way back to the hostel and rested up for dinner. We had dinner at Johnny Rockets, except in Ireland its called Eddy Rockets, but is literally the same restaurant, and after we went and saw "The Other Bolyn Girl". It was a good movie, and I definitely recommend it. After two nights in Dublin it was definitely time to make our way to the west coast to a small town called Castlebar...

what can I say- I'm a Higgins

Tomorrow I am off to Ireland!!! I will be spending three nights in Dublin, and two nights in Castlebar (where Dad, Uncle Jim, and Peter Ford go to chase whitey). I'm super excited, and I can't wait to see my "homeland." On that note it's only fitting that I leave you with this:

Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you:
May the wind be always at your back,
The sun shine warm upon your face,
The rain fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Also, I leave you with a short video that Dad sent to me, that I want all of you to watch. He says "it really does look like this" and next Tuesday I will be back to confirm.

http://www.e-water.net/irishblessing_en.html

I'm off to the land of green grass, Guinness, and rain. I'm Irish by blood and Higgins by name and like a good Irish girl and a devout Higgins, on Friday I will raise an Irish glass of Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey and make a toast to Gram, to Nan, and for the Bandits; to the Grand Old Girl.

I love and miss you all-