To celebrate the end of classes and mourn the end of our time in Spain my roommate Justyna and I went with some Spanish friends to the beach for the weekend. Lourdes, one of Justyna’s friends, has an aunt and uncle who own a beach house in Huelva, which is roughly 1.5 hours outside of Sevilla. She invited us to stay there with her for the weekend, which was extremely generous and so much fun. In total there were 8 of us: Justyna and me, Lourdes, Javí, Pedro, Javier Francisco, José y Mauri. We spent our 2 days there tanning, collecting shells, swimming in the ocean and of course playing soccer on the beach. Watching all of these Spaniards interact was a hilarious and perfect example of Spanish culture. They are all such nice, friendly people. They didn’t all know each other when we got to the beach house but by the end of 2 days they were best friends. We all helped cook enormous meals of delicious Spanish food and watched the fútbol games on TV. In Sevilla there are 2 teams: Sevilla FC and Betis. Sevilla is really good and Betis has been terrible in recent years but each team has a huge base of extremely loyal fans. It’s true here that fútbol is a lifestyle. One of the things you ask about people, or one of the things you first find out judging by their clothing, tattoos, jewelry, etc, is what team they ‘belong to.’ Sevillanos don’t say, “I’m a fan of…” or “I follow…” or “I like…” a certain team, it’s always “I am.” “Soy Betis” o “Soy Sevilla.” They are true fans to the end regardless of how the team is doing in the standings and they really do feel like they are a part of it. Sevilla and Betis are bitter rivals. While we were at the beach both teams played so we all watched the games together. There was so much yelling and arguing going on between fans of each team, it was hilarious to watch.
It was an excellent weekend overall, and a great way to finish off my semester here.
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