Monday, April 20 - Feria is coming

We've heard that we're in Sevilla at a great time of year.  The weather is beautiful, we had the opportunity to experience Semana Santa, and now we get to experience Feria de Abril.  What didn't dawn on me until a few days ago, is what it entailed to fully take part in Feria.  Here's some of what I have learned.

First, it's very important to look the part.  Here's the Feria dress I bought for Rosa.  In addition to it, she'll wear a huge flower in her hair on top of her head.  She may also wear 1 or 2 big combs in her hair.  She'll have a fan and she may have a shawl around her shoulders.

 My dress is currently at the shop being altered - so here's a picture of it from the shop.  It is extremely heavy and feels like a bridal gown or like a very fancy bridesmaid dress.  It's floor length with big ruffly poofs at the bottom.  I'll wear a red shawl with it, 1+ big flowers on my head, and humungous red earrings.  

While there are a few public casetas (tents) at the fairgrounds, it's a big deal to be invited to private casetas.  Some are very formal.  In fact, Scott is going to buy a nice shirt, jacket, and tie so that we can go into the casetas we've been invted to.  We're hoping we can convince the boys to also dress up.  At this point, we think we have an invite to our babysitter's family caseta, and 1-2 of Scott's co-workers casetas.  We're planning to go as a family and with our American friends on Thursday night, and I'll hopefully go with some girlfriends on Wednesday night.

Click here to see some images of what people wear and what the tents (casetas) look like.

All weekend long Rosa requested that we schedule a playdate with her classmate Mar.  Sure enough, as I was meeting Rosa for lunch, Mar's mom arrived, and we all went to the kids' favorite lunch place, Tapaole.  Mar's mom was super patient chatting with me in Spanish.  I learned that she's originally from Barcelona, her husband is also an engineer, and that they've only lived here for a few years.  After lunch, she was AMAZING walking me around and teaching me about Feria clothes.  She taught me that I need to spend money on the shawl (mantoncillo) or the whole dress is made to look cheap.  She helped me pick out a beautiful one that has lots of fringes.  She referred to the fringes as hair.  Then, I picked out super big (and cheap) earrings and pin to fasten the mantoncillo.  She also taught me about the flowers and combs.  I currently have a white flower, but I think my dress store will exchange it for a red one.  And she showed me some good places to buy more flowers and help Rosa get dolled up.

Walking around town yesterday I saw this shop that reminded me of Denver.

Thank you thank you thank you Tracy for putting together the box in Denver to send here.  After the craziness and back and forth with UPS picking it up at the house on Wednesday, it was at our local Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) by Friday afternoon.  But, since we were on our way out of town, we didn't get the chance to pick it up until yesterday.  It was a heavy box thanks to all of the goodies from Uncle Bruce, Aunt Bonnie (and family), and my parents, along with the mail, and Jolon's ballot.  Denver friends, remember to vote in the May 5 election.

The man at MBE let us borrow a dolly to get the heavy box home.  Devon helped me push it along the sidewalk.  That was great until the sidewalk became too narrow.  I had the kids stay put while I backed up 50 feet to where I could squeeze between cars and push the dolly and box on the road while the kids were next to me on the sidewalk.  Once we got to our apartment complex, I used ramps through the courtyard until we came to our portal.

The kids were SOOOOO excited that we could use the stairs elevator to get the dolly and box up to the portal door and then over to the elevator.  

Each kid had fun pushing buttons at the bottom and the top of the mini lift.

Here comes the dolly and the box.

We've resumed date nights.  That's when once/week one child gets a chance to choose which parent and what activity they get to do.  Our order is oldest to youngest.  This week is Cody's turn.  Cody chose to go with Scott to El Corte Ingles to help him buy a printer for his office (now that the office has been set up).  Cody had a blast looking at all of the electronics and helping Scott pick out a printer.

Afterwards, Cody chose where to eat dinner.  He chose the restaurant we ate at our first night in Sevilla.  It's in Plaza de la Gavidia.  Here he is trying his first iced tea.

While he's all smiles, he liked the idea of it more than he liked the drink.