All kinds of parties, reflections, and anticipations

An interrogation scene

Hello my name is Christine Dimke and you are reading Christine-sees-the-world the most up to date and accurate news source for Exchange Student experiences in Malaga capital.  Today we have some exclusive reports on Los Fiestas Patronales, first communions, sun burns, Ferias, and finals, so lets get to it.

Europe's Balcony

We kicked off the Fiestas Patronales on Friday with a concert that some of my friends rocked; Alfredo may not pass but he can play the guitar. Then we headed off to the port with an Oreo Cheesecake in hand to celebrate my 18th birthday.  It was a great night, because of the great friends I got to spend it with (plus they all loved the cheesecake, so much they made me make another one.)

The next week the party continued with Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, in which I played a slightly modified version of Paravicini.  We changed the name to Miss Jarlov and the nationality from Italy to England to make it more believable.  I got a lot of comments after the show on the authenticity of my accent.  I just smiled and told everyone that it was difficult to pull off, but that with practice anything is possible.  My friends stood behind me and laughed.

Nerja

We spent the next couple of days in such trying activities as giving science demonstrations, judging cake competitions, and playing student vs. teacher sports games.  It all culminated on with a paella making contest in which all the classes were given a space on the patio to make a paella in a 2 hour window.  We all went to work bringing different things and chopping and stirring (and stealing what we lacked from our friend's classes.)  4 bags of chips, 2 tortilla de patatas, 10 liters of soda, one sunburned back,one giant paella, and another cheesecake later the dust settled, and out of 44 classes the class of yours truly,2B, took second place.

One of the streets

The Jerez Feria is the horse Feria

A couple of weeks later I headed off to Marbella to give some presentations and got a chance to go to Jerez and witness one of the most famous Ferias of all time.  Whilst in Spain I have heard numerous times about Ferias, but the conclusion is always the same, they are magical, a big party and completely indescribable.  After finally experiencing one I can tell you that no words can due the atmosphere justice.  Its like a step back in time, a temporary town erected in a matter of days that is a completely separate world from the one just outside its gates.  Everyone leaves there worries outside and comes in to dance and talk and be a part of something that it really unique.  It was a beautiful expression of the Spanish spirit and culture.

The Feria at night

The other two weekends in May were spent in the good company of my dad's side of the family at the first communions of two of my cousins.  For the first one we packed up and headed off to Granada where I had the opportunity to meet the final few cousins that I had been lacking.  The ceremony was simple much like those we have in the United States, but the after celebration was huge.  All 70 some guests headed off to a venta (country side restaurant similar to a golf clubhouse but without the golf-course.)  There we talked, drank, danced, congratulated, and enjoyed a 6 course meal til 7 pm.  From there the family headed off to a country house to celebrate my Aunt and Uncles 25th anniversary.  There we enjoyed jokes, dances, beautiful views, and of course more eating and drinking.  We headed home early around midnight because of our longer commute, but I imagine the party continued well into the night.

In Granada with the family!

The other communion we celebrated here in Malaga in a beautiful little church in Capuchinos.  Then we headed down to the port for a much calmer, but equally enjoyable celebration.  Although not all the family could make it, we still had a great time.  After everyone had hit the road we lingered with my closest Aunt and Uncle and some friends and enjoyed a drink until 8 or so.

More family time with my uncles!

Now we are in finals week for the seniors so everyone has chained themselves to their respective desks till Thursday; well everyone, except me that is.  After the last final though it will be time to start celebrating!  All the way from the 31st to the 4th when we get the grades to the 7th when they graduate, and we have the biggest party of them all.  Then its back to the books to study for Selectividad or the universal college entrance exams here in Spain which pretty much determine what you can study and where.

My cousin after the celebration

 In the mean time, I'm off to Barcelona with my parents and cousin this weekend which is super exciting! It was the one place I really wanted to see when I came to here, and I didn't think it would be possible. After that its end of the year trip time.  The exchange students are taking a tour through all of Andalucia and up to Portugal for the Rotary International Convention, which should be a blast.  Summer has hit hard here on the Coast of the Sun and we mean to make the most of it and have fun!  Well just as soon as finals end.

"Cake" made of candy for comunion

The crunch of my fellow classmates for finals has given me the opportunity to work on some projects and develop some skills that I otherwise would never have found time to do.  It has also opened up for me the perfect time to explore my city and try to capture some of its essence in pictures to take back home.  Malaga really gives you a special feel and reminds you to look at the history around you to remember it, respect it, and learn from it and then to set your sights on the future so you can leave your mark for others to see. The culture, the city, the people, the landscape all of those things have left their mark on everyone that passes through here, especially me.

and its demise

To me the change, the evolution of how I see the world now from what I saw a year ago verges on incredible.  It has taught me the huge importance of cultural context and point of view, and how we can use those things to understand ourselves and the people around us.  It has lead me to understand how to sit and listen and watch and to know when to talk and to know when to be quiet.  It has given me space to examine my life before and to realize that many of my conflicts were simply in my head; all the disappointments that were caused by expectations that didn't need to exist.  To understand that counsel, no matter how seemingly overbearing always stems from a desire to see you succeed.

Cousins and Friends at a comunion

Most of all it has cemented my priorities, and the Spanish culture has taught me that when a threat comes to your top priorities it is time to stress out and do everything you can to fix it, but if whatever problem you think you have doesn't affect those priorities in a meaningful way, then don't sweat it, its not worth it.  Everything comes and goes in its season, and if you are patient everything will be okay in the end, or maybe it won't, but either way worrying about things you cannot change does nothing for you.  When I first applied those principles to my life it felt scary and out of control, but really its liberating.  It keeps you from wasting energy on things that don't matter and helps you to enjoy the things that you have.

All of this brings us to the elephant in the room for all the exchangees right now, going home.  It is safe to say that we are experiencing a bigger sense of uncertainty about going home than we did about coming.  Everything will be the same, but it won't.  The people there have changed, we have definitely changed, and we aren't exactly sure how the game is played now.  We have to go find the pieces of the lives we left, throw out the ones that don't fit anymore, and add the ones we've found here and try to form them all into something coherent and use that as the framework to build the lives we want to live.  We are ready to try new things, meet new people, and change the world , but is the world, our world that we left, ready to be changed?  We have grown up in a lot of ways here, but there will be still more responsibility to take on when we get back, and we are more than a little nervous about it.  Then there is all the freedom that we have here, can we keep it?  We are excited to go back to a place where we can express ourselves in our native language, see our loved ones, and generally count on knowing things; there is something else magical about going home as well.  Its the sensation that you belong, and that you have a little ownership of that place that no one can rob you of.  No matter how much we are in love with where we are now, and we are, there is always a little part of us that reminds us that it isn't ours to keep.  It makes our time here that much more special, and it also takes away a little of that fear and uncertainty about going home.  We are going back to people who know us and have seen us change before and a world that has always supported us when we've been close, and more importantly when we haven't, and will always be there for us through it all acting as home base.








We will shed tears of sadness when we leave and ones of joy when we put our feet on home turf and see our family again.  We will take with us all that we have learned from these wonderful places and put them to good use. We will dream about returning to our host country, and most of all we will use all of these things as the first step on the journey of the rest of our lives.  As of right now though, our adventure isn't over and having the end looming closely overhead pushes us to double up our efforts to seize everyday, go farther, and do more.  After all what we are living here is once in a lifetime, and we intend to make the most of it.