I've been in Hungary less than a week and the differences between it and Spain are already palpable in my daily routine. Despite the fact that I was already familiar with Spanish culture when I moved to Granada last year, I can't help but feel more at home, culturally speaking, here in Budapest.
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I am currently sitting in the Malaga airport. It’s already been 3 hours and I still have 7 hours to go before my plane takes off, which will be the first of 3 planes that I have to take in order to arrive at my destination for a grand total of 27 hours straight in airports / airplanes. Yippee! But at least they have a 24 hour Starbucks here (you here that, Philadelphia Airport? THEY HAVE SOMETHING OPEN FOR 24 HOURS! IN SPAIN! GET ON THEIR LEVEL!). Sitting here is bringing back so many memories of the last time I spent the night in an airport…. It was in fact this airport and it was 4 years ago when I was on my way back to the States after studying abroad in Granada. I can’t help but think of how different the circumstances are between these two trips, even though they both included panicked rushes to catch my bus at the VERY LAST MOMENT (what can I say? I’ve never been good about abiding by a fixed schedule).
This is the third time I’ve left Spain to go back to the States. The two previous times were after studying abroad and the departure marked a very definitive “leaving” of Spain to “return home” to the States. Those experiences have been filtered through feelings of resignation and sadness at the conclusion of a chapter and I remember clearly thinking, “I need to take this all in! I need to savor every last moment!” while I packed all my belongings into a collection of suitcases (I won’t admit to how many there were). County fairs are one my favorite things in the entire world. I love everything about them: the tackiness, the ridiculous outfits, the extreme food, and of course the sense of exhilaration that you feel when you get strapped into one of those rides that you know wasn’t attached soundly to the ground even just a few days prior. I love it all!
Well. It's finally happened. After all the big talk of how much I love living abroad, the reality of living in other country, in another culture, has finally caught up with me.
I've written before about my struggles to find the happy medium between truly embracing the Spanish lifestyle and engaging fully in graduate school. This internal conflict is nothing new. But now, with the end of the academic year so close within grasp, I finally lost it. When living your life in a language that is not your native language, sometimes even the smallest tasks take on huge significance as they serve as markers of your increasing level of comfort and ability to express yourself in this new language. For me, some of the biggest moments (besides the obvious attending graduate school in Spanish) included: signing a contact for an apartment, dealing with the government office in order to obtain residency, negotiating a cellphone plan, opening a bank account, taking a pilates class, speaking with a bank representative on the phone, dealing with the local police to file a police report and sending an urgent letter from the post office. But as big as these moments were for me at the time, they were blown out of the water by what went down last Friday.
This year marked my second year in Spain for Semana Santa aka Holy Week, which marks the week leading up to Easter. As a Catholic country, Spain obviously takes Easter and Holy Week very seriously so there are a number of religious ceremonies held throughout the week. It also serves as the spring break equivalent for most students since there are no classes that week so it's a huge time for traveling both within Spain and within Europe in general.
With the way schedules happened to line up, Semana Santa was deemed the most convenient time for my friends to visit. The fact that they were coming during this week was particularly fortuitous because none of us had ever experienced Semana Santa in Granada before! When we were studying here in 2012, this particular group of friends had spent the week traveling in Italy and I had spent in Madrid and Bilbao. So while I was been able to get a sense of this Spanish tradition, I always felt a little guilty that I had never experienced the Granada version because southern Spain is especially renowned for their fesitivities. Well, now was my chance! After a very relaxing and educational long weekend with my friend in Cartagena, I was off to Valencia on my own to experience las Fallas! This was the first time I had traveled to a new, unfamiliar place by myself and I have to admit I was very hesitant about embarking on a solo journey but I was determined to see las Fallas, even if it meant I had to go on my own! Las Fallas are one of the most iconic cultural events in Spain, right up there with the running of the bulls in Pamplona and the giant tomato fight in Valencia. I mean, how could I NOT go?
Before resettling my roots back in Granada and buckling down for the long haul at the end of the semester, I decided to go on one last trip with one of my friends from GEMMA. For personal reasons, she would prefer for her identity to be left anonymous so we'll call her "Dawn" (and to respect her wishes I won't be posting any pictures of her but she was there! Trust me!). This particular trip resulted from an interesting compromise: I wanted to go to Valencia to see Las Fallas (see next chronological post for more details about Las Fallas) and "Dawn" was interested in taking a trip but couldn't be away from Granada during the actual dates of Las Fallas. So, we agreed to road trip halfway to Valencia together ahead of time for our own mini getaway and then I would continue on to Valencia on my own. Now, I have to confess I was absolutely no help with the planning process of this trip. Between all the traveling I had done last month, trying to stay on top of my workload, and participating in an intensive art therapy course I was pretty overwhelmed. Luckily "Dawn" is incredibly organized and put together an amazing itinerary for us!
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Meet the Author:Graduate student of GEMMA Eramus Mundus Master's Degree in Women's and Gender Studies. Currently living in Budapest, Hungary. Originally from the American midwest. Archives
October 2016
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