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Published: January 22nd 2012
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It has been a long time since I sat down to write. I’ve had this strange notion sitting in the back of my mind that simultaneously a lot, but then again not much at all, has happened in the last few months.
I guess when I look back over the time since I last put my thoughts to paper, a lot of things have happened that are worth writing about.
Let’s start in late November.
On the 25th of November I took a trip to Salamanca in the west of Spain for my birthday weekend. The delicious jamon, remarkably inexpensive tapas and wine that flowed like water seemed to compliment so well the massive cathedrals that stuck up over all other rooftops and the dense fog that blanketed the city all weekend. Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor is the “most beautiful” in Spain and there is a river that runs right through the center of the city. On our last morning before catching the train out of Salamanca, we visited the old entrance to the university in Salamanca, which happens to be the oldest university in Spain. There is a longstanding tale involving a small frog carved into the stone
facade above the doors at the entrance, and if you can find the frog, you will have good luck and even marriage within a year. Well, I think there’s a chance we would’ve been searching for a week before we found “la rana,” but a little old man appeared out of nowhere and aided our search. Once I found the frog, I screeched and did an inadvertent little dance, and the old man told me to “Ask the frog for a wish.” While I was making my wish, the little man disappeared. We’ll see if that little old legend proves itself or not 😊
Christmas was full of happiness at my school and I enjoyed being there surrounded by it. The teacher’s do a secret Santa gift exchange during the entire week before school ends for the year and the week concluded with a giant feast and gift-giving affair on the 22nd. To fill the time between when the kids left were let out of school and when the feast was ready, the entire school staff went out for a drink at a little bar/restaurant across the street. Then we all returned to the school, raided the music classroom,
and filled the empty building with the sounds of tambourines, maracas and well, some out-of-tune songs, before we were let into the teacher’s lounge to eat. After the feast was over, the Head of Studies at my school slipped an extra bottle of wine into my bag and then we all proceeded to give out 2 kisses to about 45 sets of cheeks before leaving for the holidays. Oh how I love my school.
We put on a show for the parents on the last day before Christmas, with the kids singing and dancing in Spanish and English. Infants dancing to the Grease soundtrack in an ice-cold gym was probably the perfect way to end the semester.
For Christmas I took off the morning after work ended for the year and went to stay with my friend Aranxta and her family in Bilbao for a few days. When I got to Bilbao we went out to eat the most delicious sandwiches I think I’ve ever had, and ended up crossing paths with a Basque Christmas parade on our way to catch the metro. There were traditional Basque outfits and giants on stilts, and well, lots of mullets (it’s
still stylish, I guess.)
On the same night, we went to visit some of Arantxa’s friends in a bar and ended up listening to four Basque guys singing Flamenco. Though not exactly authentic (Flamenco is traditionally a genre of beautiful "gypsy" music from the south of Spain) it was something new for me and really fun to see.
In Spain, Christmas Eve is just as important, if not more so, than Christmas day and Aranxta, her sister and I went down to the beach in her hometown of Sopelana outside Bilbao and had coffee before walking back up to the “Nochebuena” festival in the town center where we ate roasted chestnuts, heard live Basque music and got to have a look at the Olentzero, the Basque country’s version of Santa Claus.
Christmas Eve and Christmas involved tons of wonderful and interesting food and a mountain of chocolate and sweets. There was more seafood than I’ve ever seen at one time (except maybe in a seafood market) and I ate a whole crab, snails from the ocean, shrimp, and prawns, among other things. I couldn’t bring myself to try the bigger, land snails, long, tube-like fish that make
bubbles in the sand, or these small sea creatures that look like little monster’s feet.
I got sick on Christmas day with a fever, but Arantxa’s family took good care of me.
The day before I left to return to Madrid, Arantxa, her friends, and I took a day trip to San Sebastian, another seaside city in the Basque country, and spent the day moving from one restaurant to the next eating the city’s world renowned tapas.
For New Year’s Eve, I flew to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands and fell in love with the island feel and the warmth that Madrid lacks this time of year. We spent New Year’s Eve having a fancy dinner and eating 12 grapes in 12 seconds (withhhh seeds) at midnight, and then dancing the night away in a restaurant turned discoteca in the jungle somewhere on Gran Canaria.
A lot of my week spent on Gran Canaria consisted of lying in the sun, walking the waterfront and eating delicious food of all nationalities. I had prawns for lunch on New Year’s Day, Lebanese food for lunch on the last day, and pizza at an Italian
restaurant another night, while being serenaded by a Canarian man’s rendition of Bob Marley on his casio keyboard.
I also got to go to what must have been the top of the world to look out over the island and a giant crater, visit botanical gardens, see Columbus’s house/museum, and eat a pretty large amount of the Canary’s Islands’ world famous bananas. I also met an African Grey parrot with a better Spanish accent than me.
One day we took the Guaguas (autobuses, in the native Guanches language) to Moya in north-central Gran Canaria and Agaete in the northwest, and I spent the day in awe of the fantastic landscapes. The island is like a mini continent with sprawling beaches, volcanic mountains, jungles, jagged cliffs, giant sand dunes, deserts, cities and villages, and well, a vast amount of banana plantations and nude beaches. Haha
As far as “real” life goes, my work continues to keep me entertained. My cursive is closeee to perfection and I think I now know more about the English language than I ever have before.
I am constantly finding more family ties within the school which is an interesting little puzzle for
me (this is due in part to the gypsy population in the area. As I’ve been told, their large families stick close to each other,) and there seems to be a front-tooth losing phenomenon amongst the 2nd graders. Every day, someone’s smile has changed and I get the pleasure of seeing more than my fair share of wiggly teeth. “Mira, profe, mira!”
I visited the Prado museum before Christmas with a friend and for free, thanks to my University of Idaho student ID, which doesn’t happen to have an expiration date, I got to see famous art by El Greco, Bosco, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, and Picasso.
As I finally sit down to write and look back on the last couple of months, I’m reminded of how lucky I am.
While the holidays were adventurous and beautiful, they were also hard for me. I've never spent the complete holiday season away from my family and friends before and it's truly a lot more difficult than I expected.
Thank goodness for skype, and its ability to make me feel as if there isn’t quite such a big pond dividing us.
Meanwhile, I’m missing you all.
Much love,
Cari
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