A Spanish Wedding

This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend a wedding in Spain! I guess you could technically call the bride my host sister although she doesn't live in the piso with her parents and younger brother (and now me). Whatever you want to call her, this situation meant that I got to witness the preparation and events preceding the wedding as well as the ceremony and reception.

Friday afternoon we left for the family's summer house in the pueblo Campotejar. Everyone in the family, including Leti (the bride), Veronica (oldest daughter in my host family), Tony (Veronica's husband), Aaron (their one-year-old), and I stayed in the house, with various relatives and friends coming and going at all hours the whole weekend. I know it's pretty cliché to compare the experience to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but sometimes it really was amusing to watch how many people were involved in some of the smallest details or present for professional photos of the bride, and Spaniards do speak loudly and gesture a lot while talking! ;) It's important to say, though, that Leti and Manolo (the groom, if you didn't figure that out) are very close to their families, and intentionally included them because they wanted to as much as out of respect for tradition.

Amidst all of the pre-wedding day errands and preparations, one event stuck out to me the most. The music rehearsal on Friday night was one of my favorite experiences with my host family so far. Veronica would be the lead singer and guitarist at the wedding, with a slew of others playing piano and singing. As I sat with my host mom in the church singing along (with the aid of the printed lyrics in the wedding program) and watching musicians as they checked acoustics, altered harmonies, etc., I realized how many of these rehearsals I have participated in. JAM Band at church, talent shows, choir concerts, musicals, and more- practicing, having fun, enjoying the experience of making music with other people. Of course I knew before that my host family and the other people I've met here are living their life just like I am, but we all have our own centers of the universe. Where we come from, not just geographically, but our backgrounds and families and our interests and really everything in our daily lives. During this rehearsal, all the foreign-ness of the language and customs and and everything else melted away a bit, and I was able to glimpse what it is to feel that this place, these people, this music, etc. are the familiar basis for other experiences instead of vice versa. The power of music, huh?

The weekend really flew by and before we knew it, it was Sunday morning! The women in the family went to get their hair and makeup done at the peluqueria at 6 am- eesh. Spaniards really dress up for weddings, at the least for all the ones in this specific pueblo. I was super excited because the women wear those fancy little hats you see in pictures from weddings and garden parties in Europe, but unfortunately they couldn't find the one that went with the dress I was wearing, which was actually the bride's old dress from another wedding. I brought a nice dress and heels and jewelry to Spain with me that would have been perfect for a wedding in the US, but it was not fancy enough for this one! My host family very generously provided everything I needed though...

Good replacement for a hat

   crazy face, but best view
of the dress!

 the clutch was the only thing
of mine worthy enough to use

Showtime!

Is this not precious? Baby Aaron getting professional pictures with Grandpa presiding.

Waiting to throw rose petals at the family as they exit the house

My host mom and brother- look at that awesome hat!

Throwing rose petals at the lovely bride and father

Trying to capture the amount of people in the church- I couldn't. Too many to believe. People were literally standing in the doorway during the entire (long, traditional, Catholic) ceremony.

Beautiful sister and brother of the bride!

Beautiful bride!!

Mothers of the groom wear awesome big head pieces with a veil.

I know theres's a weird shadow because of another camera's flash, but this is my host family. Aren't the attractive? Guapisimo, as the Spaniards say!

I helped put the rice in these!

Beautiful day for a wedding in Campotejar

This was one of two large rooms at this venue. The other looked similar, but had lots of tables without chairs for everyone to eat tapas and drink at. Really similar to cocktail hour at American weddings, but more food. 

First course of the formal meal. Keep in mind that we have already eaten quite a few tapas, and then remember that this is a formal wedding (pretty obvious) with a 5-course meal. I kid you not, we ate for 5 hours straight. Continuously. When I told one of my professors about it today, she said she's been to some where they ate for 7 hours. 

Sorbet-something. I believe it was a palate cleanser. Whatever it was, it was delicious.
Probably the best thing I consumed all night, which is saying something.

Several things to note here. One is that there aren't wedding parties of groomsmen and bridesmaids in Spanish weddings. Just like the rest of the time, everything is very family-oriented. At the head table are the bride and groom along with their parents. Once the bride and groom get to the head table after they've entered the reception for the first time, the parents are waiting in front of it for them. They all toast each other and the crowd, and then the real reception commences. In this case, the woman you see on the far left is the groom's sister. Their father died when Manolo was young, and his sister gave a really beautiful speech during the reception about Manolo being there for her and their mom. It was moments like that and when my host brother was reading his speech to Leti that I wish I really had a grasp on the language. Understanding the nuances of a language is such a huge part of understanding a culture and I really regret that I  had to miss this opportunity to experience the best of family relations, but the intent and emotion were obvious- it is a wedding, after all!

Another tradition- the bride and groom give flowers and/or small gifts (picture in a frame) to their parents and siblings.

After the meal has finally ended and the visiting and speeches and everything like that have finished, the lights go up and it seems like everyone is leaving. However, this is just because the majority of the crowd (excluding the very elderly) have moved downstairs in the banquet hall to the discoteca. Thus begins the most fun part of the entire day- dancing! I love to dance, and...

1. Spaniards are fantastic dancers. Yes, I'm sure there are some awkward ones among them, but as a general rule, I'm going to believe until proven otherwise that they are superior. Rhythmic, suave, and every age from child to grandparent.

2. They have great dance music. There are some fun little songs I would equate to the Macarena, Electric Slide, etc., except they're... well, Spanish. I don't think I sat down for at least two hours, just because you would wander from group to group dancing with different people, and every song was catchy. My host brother and one of the innumerable cousins broke out a cajon (this drum that looks like a box that you sit on to play, if you don't know) and played with the music while women took turns dancing little solos. 

In reality, this wedding was really similar to one in the US, but something about the Spanish people made it different. There are certainly some characteristics I can pinpoint so far, like being more relaxed in general than Americans (but not lethargic/lazy) and having the "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality, but I think those are just some of the first things I'm able to notice. I'll definitely be trying to think more about it as I continue this semester. 

Bienvenidos a Granada

This was my first week as a Granada resident and student. Some moments were very nerve-wracking, and some were triumphant. Let’s start with the nerve-wracking, shall we?

First thing in the morning I had to ride buses to my school, which is downtown. My program instructs our host parents to ride with us the first day on the way to school to show us where to go. Since one of the other girls in my program lives in an apartment near mine, my host mom wanted us to meet and ride together this first morning. We arrived at the stop, and my host mom started to walk away as a bus pulled up. I called her name in a panic and she gestured at me and smiled, and then continued to walk away. I realized then that she was walking to the corner to call the other family to see if they were coming. I let the bus go, and then a minute later another came… and she started waving me toward it. I was semi-yelling “no sé!” and gesturing, when she caught up to me and told me not to get on. In the past couple days I have noticed that my host mom will wave me on like she’s telling me to go away from her, but she means for me to come to her. I don’t know if this is idiosyncratic or Spanish, but I’m sure I won’t mistake the meaning again. Or get on a bus to a destination I’ve never been to.

Anyway... once we finally met up with the other family it was smooth sailing and we got to our final stop in the Albaicín neighborhood, and then walked up some stairs toward the school. As I rounded the corner, I was floored by the breathtaking and unimpeded view of the Alhambra, a spectacular Moorish palace/fortress. We were a few minutes early so we just sat at the viewing point and watched the sun rise over the mountains and Alhambra.

I ate dinner at this café one night this week....the Alhambra is all lit up with different colored lights. It is spectacular.

   Albaicín is the most beautiful neighborhood in Granada, and my school actually used to be a house, so it’s hidden behind a white wall and garden. Our classes are obviously super small since we divide 9 students roughly in half between two language classes, so we just go upstairs to cute little classrooms with one big table to sit around. The main room when you walk into the school has a big open fireplace for winter J. The back courtyard even has a fig tree we can eat fruit from! I love it. (I forgot to take pictures of the exterior this week, but I'll add them here next week and on Facebook.)

To the back courtyard

The view out the back of the school

            My teachers/staff are wonderful. Right now we are just finishing orientation and have started our first intensive language class. We meet for three hours every morning, but it is just so helpful and it is clarifying so much for me. Because we are learning something that is a life skill for us right now, we can pretty much just ask whatever we want to know or talk about, and we play games to practice different elements of the language. Don’t get me wrong, I have pages of notes from each class, but we are constantly talking about things going on in the city or the appropriateness of one phrase over the other in a conversation with our host family, so there’s a great experiential basis for all of it. My professor, Juanfe, is hilarious and a great teacher. I’m hoping that my community service project and social change seminar will be as good when we start them next week!

The timing of everything here is so different that it gives me a lot of time to explore the city at night (before we start community service and have a lot more out of class work). I get home from school at 2:30 or 3, which is typical lunchtime. After we eat, I have taken a siesta most days until 5 or 6. Since we don’t eat dinner until 8:30 or 9 (or later) I have used those few hours to meet up with friends in my program to walk around the city, go to a shopping center near my house, or to do homework. On my first or second night here, I decided to be brave and go by myself to the Alcampo (which is like a mall but the main thing inside is a big Walmart-like store) to buy a Spain SIM card for my phone. I have to admit that I was really proud of myself for being able to communicate enough to make a decision and understand what I was buying, and my phone has been working perfectly. Little victories!

I have such a hard time believing that I’ve been in Granada for only a week. Some things already feel familiar, like riding the bus, and some things are still just totally foreign. The whole thing is different than I expected, which I knew would happen, but it’s still odd, and I think that is the hardest thing to adjust to. I have no idea what will happen in the next few months! Sometimes that’s super exciting, and sometimes when I’m really tired it is frustrating. Taking one day at a time is important, and I can always count on the moments like eating dinner with a friend while overlooking the illuminated Alhambra and city on a random weeknight to remind me what a spectacular experience this is.

Mi familia de España

During the week in Madrid, I was really too busy to think about my host family or where I would be living, but I had plenty of time to worry about it on my five hour bus ride from Madrid to Granada. All I knew was that I have an "ama de la casa", which is basically a stay-at-home mom, a father who works in construction, and a 16-year-old brother.

It honestly is pretty hard to go into such an unknown environment. I didn't know what my family looks like, let alone what their personalities are or what their home is like. I apprehensively walked into the bus station with one of the program coordinators toward the group of parents and siblings, and almost immediately a woman came up to me and hugged me, recognizing me from the picture I sent the program. She introduced me to my host brother and is friend, and we were off!

Now, like I said in my last post, I was sadly mistaken to think I understood more Spanish. Antonia (the academic director who was with us in Madrid) was kind to us. I think I'm probably at about 10% comprehension. When they dumb it down and speak directly to me, I can at least get their meaning (usually), but holy cow. Andalucía, the region I am in, has a dialect commonly perceived to be the most difficult Spanish dialect to understand, so that doesn't help. Luckily, Juanpe, my host brother, speaks a tiny bit of English and is very clear when he simplifies his parents' Spanish for me, but he was not around on my first night with the family when I went to dinner with my host parents and met many of their friends. I met SO many people because, as I figured out with very broken down and direct instructions, we were going to a pueblo for the weekend to swim and relax. So, not 2 hours after getting to my new home (a nice piso, which is a larger apartment with 3 or 4 bedrooms and possibly multiple bathrooms), we left in their car for what I assumed was a resort of some kind. After 1/2 an hour of of driving, we drive through Campejar, which is not a resort, but literally a village (pueblo). We pull up to a white-washed, Spanish-roof house and go into what turns out to be my family's beautiful summer house. It baffles me that this house is about 4 times bigger than their piso in Granada, but it is much cooler (temperature-wise) in the pueblo than in the city. I spent my first evening in a hammock next to a little fountain with floating water lilies in their back courtyard (is this really my life?) and then we went out for tapas. It is definitely a humbling experience to know people are talking about and to you but not understanding most of it. My host mom has been great though, telling me the only word their last student knew on her first day was "gracias", and she spoke very well at the end of the semester. Whoever said you need a sense of humor to study abroad is correct- not only to be able to laugh at yourself, but to handle the unexpected events day-to-day. My first morning, when mi mamá led me to the kitchen for breakfast, she put out a box of Special K with chocolate and strawberries, pastries with a chocolate filling, a mug of milk heated in the microwave, chocolate powder, and a bowl of sugar. She left me to ponder in what manner I was supposed to combine these ingredients- make a very sweet hot chocolate? Eat cereal with hot milk? For a snack the day before she gave me chocolate milk and the same type of chocolate-filled croissant. Spaniards do really like their chocolate, but hopefully breakfasts in the future will have a bit less of it.

summer home!

The courtyard in back 

mi favorito

It looks deserted, but in summer this place is hopping- full of people and color

adorable, right? no. he barked at me and tried to attack me the second after I took this picture.

between the pueblo and Granada

En Toledo, nosotros caminamos

The rest if the week in Madrid was great- tiring, but good. We went to the Prado museum and saw so many amazing paintings, including Las Meninas and other paintings I've studied at school, which I loved. On Thursday we had an adventure day, traveling by metro and bus to Toledo. My friend Emma (who actually goes to Wooster with me) and I decided to head in the direction of the tourist center first. After about an hour of walking, we realized that the beautiful panoramic scene we were looking at was the city we were supposed to be in. Luckily, all of that walking got us to the actual panoramic viewpoint, and we took a lovely ride on a double-decker tour bus back into the city. Once there, we explored the city and visited a few of the many (for lack of a better word) attractions. Toledo gives a whole new meaning to winding streets- they're more like cobblestone pathways squeezed between buildings and mostly steeply inclined. They brought us to some cool things, though- a tapestry shop, the magnificent and famous cathedral, and one of El Greco's most famous works, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which still hangs above the tomb in a very ornate church in the middle of the city. The tour bus brought us by some of the oldest bridges and buildings, which look like (and now that I think of it, probably are) medieval castles. Seeing the differences between Toledo and Madrid made me wonder what Granada would be like. I had been understanding so much more Spanish as the week went on, but that seems hilarious now that I'm with my host family...but that's for my next post :)

This man's sketches of the city were FANTASTIC

teeny tiny little streets

La Catedral (the doorway, anyway)

beautiful example of the bridges and other buildings

happy to be on the tour bus