There is standing room only at 1 am in the morning, with people filling all streets leading towards the Arco de la Macarena. It is not raining and the processions for tonight are going ahead. I went to Mara's place to help her proofread a paper for submission to a scientific journal - she is a biologist. Her house is on the riverfront, just around the corner from mine. It was 12:45 and Calle Pureza, the one just back from the river, was lined with people staking out a spot. The sidewalk is full and people are spilling off into the streets. They will wait for a while, since the procession isn't due to come out till 2:00. I should go out and watch it. I don't know why I can already hear drums. Perhaps they've gone out earlier than expected tonight due to threatening rain.

Uh... stupid. No. They go out on time. I just waited an hour to see a bunch of guys in pointy hats. The paso was coming really soon, but I literally couldn't stand the cold one more minute. You can make pancakes at 3 am really, really quietly, if you really really need to.
Now I am sitting here with a hot water bottle on my lap eating pancake and hoping I don't get a cold, right when I am working really hard on learning a new choreography, and can't in any way afford to miss a class.

Yesterday was my first day dancing hard. One hour of class, two in the studio. I have not done any at all for more than a month. Not even studio. I cannot really afford the time or money for the studio, but that is beside the point. Some things are not negociable. The rest will work itself out somehow. Yesterday I looked and felt like I was going to fall over, walking down the street. I got home and ate a bunch of chicharrones, then made other more typically healthy stuff, and later after teaching two classes in the evening bought meat. Today I feel the opposite - totally amazing after 2 hours of hard practice.

Yesterday I also ending up walking significant distances across the city, due to the inability to take a bike, because of the pasos and crowds blocking streets. I shopped in Nervion (the distant suburbs) due to the Corte Ingles department store being the only grocery store in all of Andalucia open till 10 pm, and the Nervion location being the only one accessible to me at that time of night, during Semana Santa. It is now 3:40 and I can hear the Virgen coming out of Pureza street. I can hear the band that accompanies her, that is.

Today is Madrugada. That is why the pasos are starting out in the middle of the night. They will go all night, several lasting until noon tomorrow. This also means that all day today, people were dressed in black and women had the huge combs in their hair with black lace veils. The whole city was out in the streets, sitting, standing, talking, eating and drinking. And queing up to visit the pasos inside the churches before they went out tonight. Today and tomorrow are holidays. I am inside the house with the doors shut, but I can hear massive applause from the enormous crowd still gathered in Plaza Altozano.