La Gala Inaugural

La Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla is a flamenco festival that takes place every two years in the heart of Andalucia--Seville. I had researched it online before I came to Spain, and I was able to convince a large amount of CEA students to attend the free Gala Inaugural at the Plaza de San Francisco. It was PACKED.


The concert was very interesting. First there was a guitarist throwing down some classical flamenco stylings (silliness intentional), and then a choir came on. I'm going to post video of it when I'm on a faster connection, but the songs included a woman making sounds similar to Amanda hiccuping. You could tell no one liked them because everyone started talking and no one was shushing them.

In terms of music and dance, I've decided that I like tango a lot more than flamenco. The music, while intense and dramatic--doesn't carry that same sense of drama that tango does. It's more anticipation and buildup than actual dancing (at least the flamenco that was at the show--I've seen some that was a lot more exciting), and the lack of a partner makes the dancing actually look kind of awkward (when it doesn't look like a striptease). It's funny that thinking of tango is the thing that makes me most homesick.

There were some amazing performances though. This one group had a couple guitarists, and then the rest sat at what looked like a dinner table with microphones (kind of like a PTA committee, not that I've seen one, but as I imagine one to look like). The clapped, stomped, and slapped a light inticate beat for the singer and guitarists--and it was a lot of fun.

We left after an hour because the standing was taking a toll on our legs and the crowd was a little too packed together. The people I was standing with went back to their casa, so I called Jared (from my casa) and asked where they were heading to. They told me to meet them at this place, but I walked the wrong way and ended up at a different bar. I was walking down the river to meet them when I ran into Allison and Mollie going the other way.

They told me they were going to go to Puerto de Cuba, which is this bar/club right on the river because they were serving free Sangria for about an hour. Because I like free things, and because it was a shorter walk, I called Jared again and said I was going to head out somewhere else. Right as we were getting there, we ran into like 5 other girls from the program. At first the bouncers wouldn't let us in because we didn't have the invitation passes that Maggie was going to give us, but then either because of our persistence or because we said Toba's name (he's the guy who gets people into all the clubs and stuff), they let the girls in. Then they stopped me and asked for my pass, but I just kept repeated "Estoy con ellas," and because the girls were waiting for me, the bouncers put on a look that said "fuck it" and let me in.

The view from the bar

The place was pretty empty because it was only like 11:30, but it was beautiful. Here is the view from the bar. I hung out with the girls from my program and found out that one of them wasn't from my program, but a woman from France who was just living with the family for a week. I didn't know that you could do that--arrange a homestay for a weeklong "holiday" as she called it. But yeah. We stayed then for a while, and eventually a lot of other CEA people came, but not the ones I'm really close to. As has become our normal practice, we all went to Big Ben at around 12:45 for some cheaper drinks. I found some people from my old language class and hung out with them: Femke (Dutch), Katie (British), Harriet (British), and the German couple whose names escape me at the moment. We stayed until around 3, and then some of us went home, and others went to find a club. (I heard they didn't end up going because the cover was like 30 euros.)

Yesterday was a wash. I went to class. I ate lunch. Dormí la mona. (Meaning, I took a nap that was much longer than a siesta should be.) I ate dinner. I read a book until I went to sleep.

Today in language class we covered the "estilo indirecto," and we practiced it by telling stories like "Caperucita Roja" (Little Red Riding Hood) and "Ricitos de Oro"(Goldilocks & the Three Bears). It was fun, but a little difficult because I really haven't learned how I'm supposed to convert the verbs and stuff (but I have a sheet now). I also learned a lot of vocab today too. In conversation class, we talked about siesta, did palm readings (lol), and taught our teacher about Cribs and Mythbusters. We also told bug stories (because we get off topic like that), and stories about getting locked out. It was great. It was also great because 1) it's Friday, 2) it's gorgeous out, 3) it was also the last time I have Friday classes until January.

I think I'm going to read out on the rooftop a little more before dinner, and then I'll probably hang out with Femke and the others because I think the CEA people are having another crazy bar night and I'm not really up for that. Especially since tomorrow we're meeting at 9:15 at the University of Seville. We're heading to Jerez and Conil to see the wine cellars and spend a day at the beach.