Feria, I think I love you

This week was Sevilla's famous Feria de Abril<< click for info about it. Most cities in Spain have a spring Feria, but Sevilla's is the biggest and most well-known. The best way I can describe Feria in a few words is....think of "Spain," 100 years ago, in the most stereotypical way possible...and you got Feria! Women wear flamenco dresses, men wear suits and hats, people dress up their horse and buggies to show them off to the crowd, people eat tapas all day long with family and friends, drink rebujitos<<recipe, and dance Sevillanas and Flamenco alllllllll day and allllllllll night. In addition to the hundreds of 'casetas', there is also a huge carnival section for kids and a circus.

Feria kicks off Monday at midnight with the "alumbrado," which means lighting. This is when they turn on all the lights of Feria for the first time. It felt a little bit like new years :)

Tuesday was our day with official plans. Tally and I were invited to a caseta with Jose Manuel (Gracia's son) and Irene (Tally's intercambio).  Gracia was supposed to come with us, but she woke up not feeling too well again : / Alba (Gracia's granddaughter) walked us over to Jose's caseta so we could get in. It was one of the bigger casetas of Feria! And the inside was decorated like the Plaza de España. The actual caseta belonged to Jose's friend, who is the boss of the company that supplies water for Sevilla. We spent a couple hours drinking and eating tapas with Alba, Jose, Maria Jesus and a few of their friends.

That afternoon we walked, no, frolicked around the Feria grounds for a few hours, taking pictures posing with carnival rides, ham legs, paella and our spanish fans. I had that feeling for the third time* abroad. I was completely smitten with the whole festival.
*1 was at the Rocío family party and 2 was Paris.

Later we went to a caseta that belonged to a friend of Irene's. This one was much smaller, but just as fun!  They brought a band in so that the caseta-goers could dance Sevillanas. Here is a few video clips of Irene and her friends dancing (Irene is in the maroon dress with cream colored polka dots. The girl whose caseta it was is Irene's partner in the first video). Tally and I were dragged out there to try it.....but....I don't want to talk about it. I made a fool out of myself hahaha. Fun, nonetheless :)

I've been in a few other private casetas and many public ones as well. I dared my friend Sara to try to spot someone dancing who wasn't smiling.....she couldn't. Conclusion: life is more fun when you dance. I've been back every day...I can't help it :) 

Other Feria highlights that don't fit in the story-line:

• Gofres (waffles with warm chocolate sauce poured on top)
• Making friends with the restaurant workers
• Spanish friends dishing out cups and cups full of rebujitos to us for freeeee  
• Riding the ferris wheel 
• Seeing adults and grandparents dancing Sevillanas
• Jose being very very dad-like and deciding he's the "best" kid (of Gracia's)
• Watching budding/awkward couples dance Sevillanas. The way the guy stares at the girl is precious.