Masks & Home

Spain is a beautiful place, I highly recommend it.
Where else would you find a random marching band of giant masked people beating drums so loud it made your ears throb? Not in Providence... but Sevilla is another story.

 We went out on  Sabado (check out my espanol) and were walking around, shopping, when we walked out of a store to traffic. Everyone had stopped walking and had parted the cobblestone path, making way for a line of people disguised as demented kings, it was quite a sight. They were accompanied by drums, pounding away, and echoing in the city streets.

We scraped along the back of the crowd in an effort to reach the other side of the square, only to find another display of... marchers? 

These guys where different, more traditional, but just as loud.

We continued weaving around the crowd, but on every street was another procession, each one different from the last.

  I got separated several times, as I struggled to get a snapshot without getting trampled or lost in the crowd.

I know the shot is a little blurry, but check out his mustache. There where about 30 guys dressed like him, equipped with the same sharpie mustache, strutting their stuff through the city streets.

 I really love lamp posts. I know, of all things. But there's something about them, the intricate design on the metal, the light illuminating the orange trees, or the detail of the architecture nearby.

They're like warm fuzzy little snapshots of a scene, illuminated by warm light.

The next day, I met the family. Not my small family of  four, but the other half, just 17 people is all. We went out for lunch at 2:30, and where back home by around 6, not long at all in comparison to other get togethers.  I met Tios, and tia's,  abuelos, and abuelas, primos y primas. The list goes on.

These flowers caught my eye... they where outside of the restaurant.

The family was very nice, everyone greeted me with smiles and a kiss on the cheek. We ate at a very traditional restaurant, a former farm house that had been redone, it was open to the outside, illuminated by natural light, with a brick oven where all the cooking was done. They only had one pescitarian item on the menu, like I said, traditional Spanish. I had swordfish, and it was delicious. 

This is Laura, my host sister, you'll often find her smiling : )

Just another random lemon tree...

My new boots.

The back of the restaurant, we were leaving then.. as the sunset.

I thought I'd give you a little insight as to what my room is like, the walls aren't really pink, by the way..

This was the sign my family greeted me with the day I arrived, it set the tone. : )

My book, which I just finished today.. highly recommended, if you don't mind being scared for life.

Where would I be without my earrings?

And finally my room, home sweet home. I don't sleep on the same pillow as I have for the past 8 years, and I don't have the fan that used to lull me to sleep each night. Without them though, I'm perfectly fine. Had I not known I used them for the past 8 years, I never would have known I missed them..