Olé

Here is a typical shot of Feria, glamorous women ride around on horses and the little striped top houses you can see behind are the casetas. Not everyone gets dressed up but it is very common to do so, and so much fun! Ole!

Marcos´s mother made me a flamenco dress for this years Feria !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The dress is pretty much finished except for a few touch ups and I am so excited!!!!!!!!! Its BEWDIFUL!!!! For those who don´t know what the feria is, the word feria means “fair” so its like a town fair. There is one part with your typical rides, money sucking games and fairy floss but you don´t have to go to that part. The other part, which is full of “casetas” little houses. Which actually look like little houses. They are decorated in “feria” style and like a house they are all private. You have to know someone who is a member, (or know someone who knows someone!) of one to enter. Fortunately if you are here a while you will always be invited by workmates, friends etc. Inside, they are set out like a bar, with a dancing area and lots of tables, you can eat & drink The typical drink is manzanilla which is a white sherry, this is pretty hardcore by itself so its usually mixed with lemonade, this mixed is called “rebujito” and served in platic shot type glasses. It seems to be the only time the spanish folk feel in the mood to get wasted so there is lots of drinking and lots of dancing “sevillanas”

So I´ve got the dress. I am just going to give you a sneaky peak cause you can´t see it in full until I have the mantoncilla & peineta in place (scarf and hair thing) not to mention the humongous flower that gets propped right on the top of the head. So when I am ready for Feria I will post more pics. I´ve gone classic, with the red colour and spots! Thought it only fair for my first one!

Moving Day

So we moved out of palace number 1 and into palace number 2. We signed the lease on the same day as we moved in (and out of the other place) so things were a bit hairy. We had been looking for a new place to live for quite a few months after our landlord decided to increase the rent by 100 euros a month. Looking for a place to live was an absolute nightmare. We saw literally about 40 places. It was amazing some of the places people were trying to rent for outrageous prices. We finally got something nice, albeit small (50m2). 1 bedroom, basic furniture, small private interior patio in a good area of town at an acceptable price for what it is…however we saw some doozy´s. One place looked like the hostal room in that movie “The Beach” in Thailand where that guy kills himself, one had a kitchen that consisted of a sink with 1 single hotplate plugged into the wall sitting on the stainless steel part of the sink. That’s IT. (god knows where you´d put the cereal in your underwear draw maybe?) The fridge was in the hallway and the washing machine in the bathroom. One place had this ingenous (aka HIDEOUS) wall unit, to put the wedding cristal I suppose, but look here, looky what we have, no its NOT a wall unit, pull out this draw and it’s the BED. The bed pulled out of the wall unit in the loungeroom!!! Then in the bathroom, the bidet (god in 25m2 why the HELL would you put in a bidet!) was INSIDE the shower! Marcos exclaimed to the lady who showed us “Wow, that’s um…interesting” and she said “yes the tiles are very unusual.” SHE THOUGHT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT THE TILES!!!!! He said “no, um I mean how the bidet is INSIDE the shower.” The worst part I suppose was the hideous furniture. I mean I don´t mean to be picky (I am) but most of the places looked like Grandma had died and they decided to leave it as a shrine to her. Complete with huge pictures of Jesus over the bed. No amount of Ikea shopping could cover that shit up. OK so maybe we were a bit picky. Marcos did refuse a place cause he thought the landlords teeth were scary. (They were!!)

ANYWAY, so we got this new place, signed up and moved in the same day. It was a perfect day for a move NOT. Domingo de Ramos. (Palm Sunday) The first day of Seville´s Holy week. The day is known for people to get really dressed up and for the woman to wear new dresses for the first time. The processions start passing through the streets and it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to get through. But of course we had to get through. No choice there. No cars allowed, so I fluttered my eyelids and convinced the manager of the local supermarket to let me borrow two shopping trolleys. There was no time to shower and we proceeded to move through the crowds with the shopping trolleys looking very much like gypsies that had just robbed a house. (well that how everyone was looking at us anyway) Imagine, Mardi Gras. and trying to move house from one side of Oxford street to the other. Its kinda like that, but instead of floats with men in leather pants with the ass cut out the floats are of Jesus.
The pics are stolen from the blog of my friend Sarah, who explains the whole idea of Holy Week much better than I could. Its one of the processions going past during the day. There is music played from a band that follows and the float is carried but a whole heap of men hidden underneath. The floats are heavy! And the men are strong! The move in unison taking little steps and with the music the floats look they they are swaying and dancing themselves.
Here is a pic from Sarah´s blog of the costaleros (the name of the men that carry) practising in the street (they train all year)

Tarjeta de Residencia!!! Yipppeeee!!!

First things first - I AM LEGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes it is all very exciting. After 1 ½ years of waiting, papers, money, papers, papers and more money. Its FINALLY been approved. It ALMOST didn´t happen. After losing my job, then getting a new one just 3 days before the papers from australia were meant to be handed in I was told that due to the new job – I had to re-apply. After a wee 5 hours waiting time each day for about 4 days, it was sorted out, and then after 1 ½ months….THE CARD! Oh The Joy!!!! The Joy!!!!! Now I don´t have to hide from police! Now I can go to the doctors! Now I can rent DVDs!!!! Now I can TRAVEL without threat of incarceration!!!!! I have been wearing it around like the prize it is as you can see in the pic.

Here is a pic of some of my fellow workmates. The guy is Juan Luis but everyone calls him JuanLu. If you say his name in a really aussie accent (which I do I´m no good at J´s) his name sounds like one loo. I told him this and he is very proud. He has beers at lunchtime. He would be a good aussie. Darked haired chica is Macarena, any cries of eeeeehhhh Macarena oh! are frowned upon – understandably so. Spain is very embaressed about that song. Macarena eats as much as I do. Curly haired chica is Reyes which means “Kings” She is a spanish version of Edwina Gould with the same laugh and everything. She has beers after the gym. she would be a good aussie too. In the pic she is being choked by the others with my furry scarf. They all ride bikes to work like me.