My 145 Day Journey: Jamón Ibérico, "Caving", the Beach and Catholic mass: an Interesting Combination

For each of my business classes, we are required to go on a company visit that pertains to the class. For example, for my International Finance class, we visited a financing company that works with hotels and tour agencies around the world. This past Friday, for my International Marketing class, we visited the company Cinco Jotas (literally translated means 5 J's, but the company never translated their name) that sells their products all around the world. More generally, they are known as Sanchez Romero Carvajal. Here, we learned about the process that they use to make their jamón Ibérico.

The company is located in a small town in la Sierra Norte del Sevilla. There were about 40 of us on this company visit. When we got there we watched a short video about the products that the company sells, and then we had to put on our shoe covers, plastic jackets, and head covers to go on a tour of the facility. We saw the rooms where they sliced the various parts of the pig, the salting room for preserving the ham legs, and the cellars, where the ham stays for 24-36 months while it matures, and the different rooms for chorizo while it ages. It was a very interesting tour, and none of it bothered me, but I know the vegetarians in the group didn't completely love the tour. At the end of it all, we got to taste some jamón Ibérico with a glass of sherry, which I thought was a very classy way to end the tour. Also, if they sent us to the gift shop, where we could buy Cinco Jotas piggy banks, t-shirts, paté, small packages of jamón Ibérico, and 330 euros legs of jamón Ibérico. It was just a little out of my price range.

When we left that town, we headed for Aracena, another town in la Sierra Norte del Sevilla. Here, we were given money to go tapear (to go eat tapas), which was a lot of fun in and of itself. The group that I split up with went to a restaurant outdoors to tapear, and we invited Jaime (our program's resident director) to join with us. After tapas, we walked around the town a little bit before we had to meet up again to go "caving." I put it in quotations because it wasn't really caving, it was just walking along a path, taking in the wondrous sites that the caves had to offer us. The whole time, the guide was yelling at our group to stop taking pictures (I at least made a game of being sneaky without the flash). When she told Jaime that she was going to call and complain and he told us about the complaint, he just said "no pasa nada (don't worry) it happens all the time with the business program. I just found that funny. By the time we got home, and all was said and done it was 7pm, and I was completely exhausted.

The next day, three other friends and I decided it would be fun to go to the beach for the day in Huelva to las Matalascañas, which is the closest beach to Sevilla. We took an 11am bus, and arrived just after noon, and headed straight for the beach. Even though the entire week had been absolutely perfect weather, it was a little cloudy, and a little windy. We braved it though. Once the sun came out and the wind calmed down a little, it was the perfect temperature to lie out in the sun. Slowly, more and more people arrived to the beach: families, friends, Spaniards, foreigners. We were all there together chatting and sleeping, playing games in the sand. Something my friends and I found interesting and funny: Spaniards, especially those in Sevilla, will wear long pants, boots, and jackets when it is 75 or 80 and sunny outside, but as soon as they go to the beach they are the one's most willing to sunbathe with imperfect temperatures. Just an interesting observation.

Just like the weekend before in Lagos, I braved the Atlantic not once, but twice with my friend Ashley. The waves at the beach were absolutely perfect for body surfing. I hit numerous great waves, but also hit some others too early (ending in me being flipped in all directions under the water), or too late. All in all, it was all kinds of fun! Our señoras had made us lunches so we wouldn't have to worry about anything when we got there. It was a great care-free way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

When I got home around 7:30 before I could even put my things down in my room, Miguel walked in and invited me out to a discoteca with his friends, which I ended up passing on because I was so completely exhausted, and I knew if I went out on Saturday night then I wouldn't be able to be productive on Sunday (and I had to be productive on Sunday!). I told him that we have to go out the following Saturday and he sounded all for it!

Sunday, I was in fact productive. It's crazy to believe, but this is my 3rd to last week of class. Therefore, all of the semester-end projects are coming up rapidly, along with normal everyday homework, so my plate is filling up fast! I asked my friend Vanessa if I could tag along with her to mass at the cathedral on Sunday, and she said of course. I figured, even though I'm not catholic, it would be silly for me not to go to a mass in the world's 3rd largest cathedral when it's literally been in my backyard for the last 3 months. Even though I've been in the cathedral before, with my family 6 years ago, sadly but surely this was my first time in there during my stay here. The mass was in a side chapel in the cathedral that could fit about 100 people. The service itself was pretty cut-and-dry since there wasn't any singing and all of it was done in Spanish (of course). During the service, someone started to practice the organ in the cathedral I would assume in preparation for Holy week, and the sound echoing throughout the cathedral was so glorious. It was just amazing to be in a building with so much history and so much beauty, with the amazing sounds surrounding me.

All in all, the weekend was a combination of a handful of very different things. They were all amazing in their own ways, and I'm blessed to have done them with classmates that have become such amazing friends.

This was one of my last weekend in Sevilla, which is just so strange to say. The next month is as follows:

This week: Class and a trip to Morocco on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

Following week: Class, and that Friday my family arrives!

Following week: Holy week and traveling with my family

Following week: Class, leaving for Palma de Mallorca at the end of the week

Following week: Feria in Sevilla, splitting the week in Mallorca and Sevilla

Following week: Class/Final Exams

Following week: Traveling with Mandy

Following week: Traveling with Mandy/HOME!

It's unbelievable that that's all the time I have left. As it stands now, I have 52 days until I am home. Crazy. But to keep my sights in the short-term, I am looking forward to my trip with my program to Morocco at the end of this week. It will be a different cultural experience, and also will help me in my sibling domination at conquering the world one continent at a time. I have beaten John and Dave to Europe, South America, and now Africa. It just doesn't even seem fair to them anymore. Step up your gam boys! And in only 10 days my family will be here in Sevilla! I absolutely cannot wait for them to get here because I've missed them so much. I can't wait to show them all around Sevilla: my European home.