Feliz Viernes!

Because the last post was a little bit of a debby downer, I felt the need to share with all of you that I am feeling much better.  Normalcy has resumed.  I've also watched the entire collection of Harry Potter movies (Yes, all eight films), successfully had another accomplishment in using my Spanish speaking skills at the bank, and reconnected with my original friends from "Hostel Rafi."  I have a holiday dinner with a bunch of friends tonight.  And lastly, I am getting excited for my trip next week to Rome!!

Happy Friday!

Bah Humbug

So up until Christmas Eve, I was doing pretty good coping with the holidays.  I made sure to surround myself with friends and activities, I watched the entire collection of Christmas Movies on Netflix, ate a lot of chocolate, listened to Christmas music 24/7, etc.

But then Christmas Eve day hit.  I was a little sad.  I ate an entire box of 22 chocolates.  I also made sure to preoccupy myself with the activities that were planned for the night.  But nothing could completely cure the sadness that was mildly sitting in the back of my head.  After an agonizingly long day, the time arrived for me to head to Sara's house to spend the night with her family.  She refused to tell me anything about the night so I had no idea what to expect except that we would be eating a lot of food, going to church, and then fiesta-ing until the sunrise.  After much debate on what to wear, I finally decided on this...

Next wave of sadness hit when I realized my Christmas Eve outfit would not be approved by my Mother or Father.  You see, every year, my family  has a mini fashion show of what we are going to wear to church for that night.  Hence the selfie above; I felt the need to send it to my parents.

Anyway, fast forward to Sara's house where I arrived fashionably late due to being stopped by someone I knew on my walk over.  Leave it to the Spanish to easily fill up 15 minutes with small talk conversation.  Upon arrival, I was thrown into introductions to a bunch of different people.  No idea if they're family or friends because within five minutes of me arriving, they were leaving.  Oh I should mention, I had chocolate stuck in my teeth.  Don't ask me how I didn't notice before leaving the house.  I'm not too sure myself.  Sara was a nice enough friend to inform me of this incident.  After getting rid of the leftover chocolate, I was thrown into her family playing an assortment of instruments (a spanish-like drum, tamborines, bells, etc) and singing Spanish Christmas songs.  Soon it was time for food.

The food was immense as expected and delicious.  The run down was as follows:

STARTER: (As pictured above) Assortment of meats, cheese, bread, crackers, potato chips, olives, and beer

1ST PLATE: a seafood soup.  Similiar to lobster bisque.  Very good.  Oh and of course more beer

2ND PLATE: Avocado, Salmon salad; tuna salad; orange slice salad; white wine

3RD PLATE: Some kind of meat dish, red wine

DESSERT: Red wine, a three layer chocolate mousse cake that sparkled!

After dessert, we rushed off to midnight mass.  I was surprised to see that the mass was rather empty compared to the normal masses on Sunday nights.  In the United States, Christmas Eve mass is always full.  You usually have to get to the church somewhat early to get a decent seat.  Welp, here was when my next wave of sadness hit.  And it hit very hard.  While waiting for the mass to start, I couldn't stop thinking about what I was missing out with at home.  Out of all of the services throughout the year, Christmas Eve mass is my favorite.  The atmosphere is just buzzing with love and joy and the decorations are beautiful.  My church also adds different instruments and additional singers for this mass.  Everything combined makes it an absolutely beautiful service that my family has attended ever since I can remember.  And the church in Spain was missing all of these familiar things/traditions.  Yes, it had a massive Nativity Scene and a choir, but it still didn't feel the same.  And because the mass in Spain is obviously in Spanish, I didn't get to fully enjoy the message of what was being preached.  Yes, I know we were celebrating the birth of Jesus, but there is always more to it than that.  Anyway, mass ended, and before we could leave, everyone had to kiss Baby Jesus' foot.  This was new for me. 

We headed back to Sara's house.  Instantly upon walking in the door there were cries about Santa.  Apparently, while we were at church he had come and delivered presents under the tree.  (Sara has two very young cousins.)

Sara's family has been wonderful to me ever since my arrival into their lives.  They treat me as one of their own which I will forever be grateful for.  They had presents waiting for me too which included a very nice shirt and a beautiful scarf.  After presents, Sara and I departed the house to join her Spanish friends out at the bars. 

I would like to mention that it never rains in Spain.  We maybe get rain once a month, otherwise it is always blue skies and sunny.  Of all of the days to rain, Mother Nature decided Christmas Eve was the best day for it.  And it didn't just rain; it POURED.  It poured from 12:30am until 24 hours later.  It poured non stop to the point where my room, which is on the second story of the house, had a mini flood.  I wish I was exaggerating.  The rain found a way to creep through the bottom of the windows (they go from ceiling to floor) and onto my floor. 

Because of the rain, we picked a bar and stayed there the majority of our time.  Usually, you hop around from place to place but no one wanted to venture out in this rain.  I made it till about 4:00am before calling it quits and heading back to my house.  By the time I arrived back home, I looked like a wet cat.

The next day, Christmas day, well lets just say I spent the day in bed, in pajamas, and eating lots of food.  It was a very sad day.  The reason it was so sad was because it felt like I had completely missed Christmas.  Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday.  And this year, I felt like I just never had the chance to take part in it.  I think this is because I didn't get to do a single tradition I am used to.  Or maybe it's because Spain doesn't treat it like Americans treat it.  To them it isn't a big deal; it's just another reason to party.  (And I don't say these things in a bad way; it's just how they view Christmas.)  I would compare it to Thanksgiving Eve combined with Thanksgiving Day.  Thanksgiving Eve in the United States is a night to go out and party and see people who have just returned home and whom you haven't seen in forever.  And after a night out, the next day is spent eating tons of food with family and friends.  Christmas Eve in Spain s exactly the same (except combine both Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day).  Everyone returns back to the towns they grew up in and it is a big social night seeing everyone you haven't seen in forever.  You also eat a big meal with your family beforehand.  The feelings you feel on Thanksgiving are extremely different from the ones of Christmas.  And I think because I never felt the feelings that I am used to at Christmas time, it made me feel like the holiday was skipped this year.  The realization that I had missed out on it was what made it so sad.  Christmas in Spain was just another day which is the opposite of what it is in the United States, at least for me.

Did I mention it was still raining (it matched my mood), and my room was flooding? Woohoo.  


Out of all of things I have experienced so far in Spain, this was definitly the hardest.  All I wanted was to be home but there was nothing I could do about it.  (Trust me, I looked up airline prices but $1,200 was a little out of my price range.  And yes, I even looked up discounted prices for flying home in an emergency.  I felt this was a valid emergency.)  If I do spend another year in Spain or in any other country, I have made the vow to be home for Christmas. 

I also give kudos the military men and women who have to spend Christmas away from their families.  It is not an easy feat.  And I thank every single one of them for that.  (Shout out to my butthead of a brother.  And Nolan Wire too!)

Lastly, this Christmas made me realize how many wonderful people I have in my life.  I want to say thank you to everyone who thought of me this holiday season and sent me Christmas Cards.  Receiving cards was a big joy during the days leading up to Christmas.  And thank you to all of my friends for keeping in touch with me over the last four months whether it was through facebook, whatsapp, or skype.  It really means a lot.

Also, I wouldn't last a minute in Spain without the amazing friends I have made here. 


And finally a big thank you to the old college roommates and my best friend.  You four have been especially wonderful with keeping me updated on life back in the United States.

Merry Christmas from Mrs. Scrooge herself.  Bah humbug.

In the Spirit of Christmas

In the spirit of Christmas, I would like to share with you a tradition Spain has around this time of year.  This tradition involves the Nativity Scenes in which every Spanish family sets up for Christmas.  If you are just joining me on this particular post, you should read some previous ones I have written about Spain and their Nativity Scenes also known as Belen's.  The citizens of Spain truly love turning the Nativity Scene into an artform and a spectacle.  I rather enjoy it because it brings awareness to the birth of Christ and not so much Santa Claus and presents.  Christmas, as we all know, started because of Baby Jesus' birth.  (Look Mom, I did learn something in CCD!)  And, I think a lot of times that is forgotten in today's day and age. 

Anyway, as mentioned, this tradition involves the Nativity Scene. In the United States, the Nativity Scene is a sacred piece of Christmas.  It is very simple.  Unlike Spain, it normally doesn't involve a full get up of the city of Bethlehem with running lights and water.  Let me refresh your memory again with a picture of the Belen in my friend Sara's house:

Also, I have never, nor would I ever, think to tamper with the Nativity Scene like my school did: 

I think my Nana would have a heart attack if she saw such a thing.  But as we all know, Spain is a VERY different world than the United States.  And I ask you to brace yourselves before you continue reading about the Spanish tradition I am about to share with you....

This ladies and gentlemen is the "caganer."  Also know as the pooping man.  And yes, you will find it in most Spanish nativity scenes. 

Why do you ask is there a pooping man in the sacred scene with Baby Jesus?  Well, it's kind of like the Where's Waldo of Spain.  It's hidden within the scene itself and you have to find it.  Once you find it, you will have good luck for the upcoming year (I think). 

And if you think that this tradition is relatively new, think again.  It has been around since the 18th century.

So there you have it, a new fact about Spain I'm betting you didn't know.  I hope you have grown wiser with this piece of information.  I wouldn't be surprised if one day this tradition made it to the United States.  Now go and find the caganer:

Merry Christmas!

Some things I forgot

A few things I forgot to mention in my last post:

1.) Spanish children don't know how to make snowflakes.  I know, I know.  I'm just as shocked as you. I'm talking the paper snowflakes that you cut up and use to decorate for Christmas.  Something very easy (more or less) that I thought every child in the world knew how to make.  I was extremely mistaken once again.  That lesson plan was obviously a disaster.

2.)  The students have also never seen any Christmas movies I grew up with as a kid and that I continue to traditionally watch.  For example: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc.  Another big shock.

3.) Santa Clause doesn't bring toys on Christmas.  Instead the Three Kings bring presents on January 5th and/or 6th.

4.) Here are some photos from the dinner with my school the other night.

Singing with the other school

 The teachers of Niceto

5.) Last night I attended my first Spanish theater performance.  It was kind of like a musical in that there was singing and dancing throughout the show.  However, about half of the songs were sung opera style.  Thank goodness acting is universal.  I did not understand most of the words spoken, but I was able to follow the story line thanks to the wonderful acting/actions of the actors.  All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the show!

CHRISTMAS BREAK IS HERE!

Finally.  I am officially on Christmas break.  I have to give a big shout out to the Ministery of Education for making this Christmas break 19 days long.  I'm sure plenty of relaxing and traveling will occur. 

As for Christmas things:

1.) I joined the 5th and 6th graders in a field trip to the city's theater this past Wednesday.  Just to make everyone aware, field trips in Spain differ greatly from the ones in New Jersey.  There is no big yellow bus.  As mentioned, the students walk or drive to school so there aren't any buses around to even use (that I am aware of.)  So imagine a group of about 50 students just walking the streets of Priego.  Yea, I couldn't imagine it either until I partook in the walking.  Keep in mind, we were walking down streets where there were cars driving.  Only a little bit chaotic. 

2.) The students were heading to the Theater to perform a song.  Other local schools were doing the same thing.  It was a very nice event.  I even got to join them on stage and sing the song too.

3.) Our Christmas doors were finally finished yesterday.

                                                                       5th Grade

 1st Grade

 3rd Grade

 2nd Grade

4.) The school's nativity scene was also completed yesterday with last minute finishing touches.  While we were enjoying our seven hour long lunch, a person came around to judge the display.  It is a competition open to the public of Priego and there are prizes.  Turns out, our school's Nativity Scene won First Place!!

The entire thing is made out of letters.  The dessert sand is alphabet pasta.  The palm trees are cut up pages from books.  The water is filled with cut out letters.  Mary, Joseph, and Jesus sit on top of the bible.  The animals, three kings, and the angel are made out of books.  The pictures don't do it justice.  But the concept is very creative.

5.) Today at school, the students performed for their parents Christmas songs they've been practicing for the last month.  The event was a nice way to end school before winter break.  And unlike American schools where Santa makes an appearance, they instead had the Three Kings show up and pass out presents.  Very different, but same concept more or less.

 All of the 1st graders were dressed as Christmas Trees!

Hope all of my fellow teachers, both in Spain and the United States, are enjoying their winter break as well!

7 hours later...

I have finally arrived home after having one of the best times to date in Spain.

Sometimes I feel like the life I am living is unreal.  Some of the events that have occurred in my travels throughout Europe have felt like they were out of a movie. Today/tonight has been one of them. 

Let me take a moment to reiterate again... I have been out and about for the last 7 hours.  A lot of wine has been consumed.  A lot of karaoke has been sung.  And I body is still in a food coma.  I apologize in advance for any and all grammar mistakes (MOTHER).

Back to today...

Today started out as any normal day.  It was the last "real" day of school before break.  Tomorrow is the Christmas fiesta in the school where the students sing and the parents come watch etc.  I finally finished all of the door decorations and projects for Christmas with my students.  I watched Frosty the Snowman four different times.  And to add some spice to the day, the teachers and I drank shots of "Rosolli" during the break.  Nope, I'm not lying when I say all of the teachers drank alcohol at the school.  To be fair, it was homemade so I had to try it.  And you can only find it in Priego.  And it's a liquor with coffee in it, and being that I love coffee, I really needed to try it.  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Spain.  

I'm sure some of my readers are still gasping at the fact that I drank while I was working.  To Spain, this is normal.  It is about as normal as drinking a cup of coffee while you are instructing your students.  To the Spanish, this is absurd since coffee to go in unheard of.  Each country has its differences when it comes to certain matters. 

Today was also the day of our School Christmas lunch.  We were to meet at 3:00 pm at a very well known restaurant in Priego.  A lot of people have told me that I needed to eat at this place because the food (and the view) are to die for.  However, being that the restaurant is kind of expensive, and it's not a place where eating alone is typical, I held off.  When I was informed that our lunch would take place here, I was ecstatic. 

Anyway, I arrived at 3:00 pm along with the 1st grade teacher.  We headed inside together and downstairs to our table where we kicked off the lunch with a wine glass full of beer.  (Classy, I know).  The rest of the teachers soon followed and joined us.  As always, I will give you a run down of the food we ate because I want your mind to be blown just like mine is every single time when I eat a Spanish lunch:

STARTER: Beer, cheese, meat assortment, olives, potato chips, and bread

1st PLATE: Shrimp wrapped in eggplant drizzled in balsalmic with crumbled walnuts on top.  (SO GOOD!) And of course more beer.

2nd PLATE: No idea.  But it was delicious.  The dish consisted of I think scrambled eggs, chopped vegetables, and stringy things that looked like gray spaghetti but were only an inch long.  I'm pretty sure it was some sort of seafood, but I have no idea what.  Beer and white wine to drink.

3rd PLATE: Fried eggplant (maybe??) with honey and balsamic drizzled all over.  (Another typical dish of Spain that I thoroughly enjoy.)  More white wine

MAIN DISH: Baclaou (no idea how to spell it but it's some sort of fish with a tomato like sauce drizzled all over), with potatoes, and a nice double fisting of white and red wine to drink.

DESSERT: Ice cream with some sort of cinnamon tart and more red wine.

LASTLY: The night wouldn't be complete without a shot of some sort of caramel liquor.  I was also asked to give a toast.

Anyway, throughout the meal, I held my own speaking Spanish.  (Another great triumph)  The conversation was consistently full of laughs.  There were other schools eating at this restaurant as well, so I socialized with them too.  One lady ended up being my friend Sara's Aunt.

After eating our main dish, one school broke out a guitar and started playing it in the middle of the restaurant.  Keep in mind, this is a pretty nice restaurant.  If this had happened any where else, that person would have been kicked out of the place.  But instead everyone joined in and sang Spanish Christmas carols.  And before I knew it, a clarinet also appeared and joined the guitar.  Soon, I was invited to that School's table to sing songs in English with them.  (As always, I truly stand out as an American because of my looks here.) 

As fun as it was standing in the middle of the restaurant singing British Christmas carols I didn't know, I couldn't avoid the fact that everyone was looking at me.  And I really wished I had showered today.  Along with wearing a different outfit.... But oh well.

Spain loves to cheer to things.  So throughout the night several cheers were made including one to the state of New Jersey. Woooo.

We also did a gift exchange.  I was told in advance to buy a present for three euros (about $5.00).  After much debate, I decided to go the creative route and hoped that the Spanish would appreciate it.  I settled on a roll of toilet paper which I decorated with two googly eyes, an orange triangle, and five black dots to make him look like Frosty the Snowman.  I also added a water bottle in which I had changed the label to say "Melted Snowman."  And because getting a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of water sucks for a gift, I threw in two chocolate bars so the person could somewhat enjoy the gift.  I was the first to pick a present out of the bag.   I ended up picking a very nice carved, wooden, jewelry box.  However, my favorite gift of the night was a bag of about 15 garlic's that someone ended up picking.  Just imagine getting a present of just garlic.  It was totally random and also extremely funny. 

After eating, we headed further down into the restaurant to the basement where there was a karaoke bar.  Tonight I realized how much karaoke sucks when you don't know any of the songs.  But it was still fun.  The highlight of the kareoke was when a "Grease" remix came on.  Singing along with the Spanish to "Summer Lovin" was hilarious.  Mostly because it was so incredibly random.  I also noticed that everyone, no matter what they're age, was acting as if they were in their 20's having the time of their life.  The Spanish truly know how to have fun.  Lastly, before calling it quits for the night, the song "Macarena" came on.  We are all familiar with this famous 90's song.  Maybe it is because it came out when I was in 2nd grade or maybe I'm just really naive, but I had no idea the song was Spanish.  And boy have I been singing it wrong!

Lunch started at 3:00.  I finally arrived home around 10:00.  Talk about a typical Spanish lunch.  And I loved every single second of it. 

A Sneak Peak of Christmas in Priego...

An update on my week which has been CRAZY...

1. I toured Sara's country house (seriously a celebrity could be living there.  It's beautiful.)

2. I also toured the olive oil factory where she works.  The place was nicer than my house.

3. Christmas is underway in my school.  I was put in charge of some sort of Christmas decorations involving english.  This is what I came up with...

The teachers were pleasantly (I hope) shocked when I turned them into elves.  The students were shocked as well and continuously look at the display.  They also read the words constantly which is exactly what I was going for!  Wooo English.

4. I also decided to involve my students with the rest of the decorations.  Each of my classes will be decorating their classroom door.  My 4th graders were the first to finish theirs...

More photos next week after the rest are finished.

5.  Bethlehem's ("Belen" in Spanish) are popping up everywhere.

This is the one in Sara's house.  Lights, running water, the whole nine yards.  It's actually pretty normal to do a grand display of the scene.  Wait until you see the one my school is setting up.  Photos to follow next week when it is finished.

6. I cooked homemade perogies from scratch.  Spain has turned me into quite the little chef since there are no short cuts available here.

France Part III...

Our last day in Strasbourg was very enjoyable.  We were very happy that we did most of our exploring the previous day because on this day the city was CROWDED.  The markets were extremely difficult to navigate compared to the day before.

On this day, we tried a new place for breakfast.  We feasted on chocolate croissants, coffee, and orange juice.  After this, we strolled around the city again.  Our first mission was to make a dinner reservation.  As stated above, the city was packed and in order to eat dinner, a reservation was necessary as suggested by our old man friend from the hotel.  After our restaurant scavenger hunt, we went on a new scavenger hunt of finding the museum we all wanted to go to.  Turns out this museum was basically across the street from the one we visited yesterday.  (Face palm)

What made this museum so attractive was the fact that it was an actual house which showed the lifestyle of a typical person living in Strasbourg through its set up and reenactments.  You were able to walk throughout the house and see figures dressed during different time periods, bedrooms, kitchens, livelihood, etc.  They even converted part of the museum into what the house would have looked like for Christmas.  The only photos I took were of the different wrapping paper they used for Christmas and of the Christmas tree. (Which by the way is hanging from the ceiling because that was the normal thing to do back in the day.)

After the museum, we strolled through the different side streets of the city.  We stopped in two little french boutique stores (bought myself a scarf and a bird ornament), some more markets (bought chocolate of course), and eventually ended up at a new market we hadn't seen yet.  Every year the city of Strasbourg honors a different country to bring awareness to the people visiting.  This country gets its very own market to display its culture.  This year they chose the country Croatia.  So this market had different foods, drinks, knick knacks, etc from Croatia.

After the Croatia market we headed to "Le Petite France".  We had yet to explore this part of the city and didn't really know what to expect other than that all of the travel books said to visit here.

Well let me tell you, this part of the city immediately became my favorite.  Everything is built right on the water.  Literally the water and the sidewalk were almost at the same level.  I could step right off and into it if I wanted.  The buildings here were also the most historical.

 

















After a photo shoot along the river (there are about 100 more photos on my friend's camera), we strolled around the side streets until we stumbled upon two new markets.  These markets were all about food.  We sampled: cookies, egg nog, jam, bread, gluhwein, etc.

As our bodies were extremely frozen by the time we finished, we headed back to our hotel to once again thaw out.  After defrosting, we ventured back outside to our dinner reservation.  Of course we had to stop and take photos of the lights along with way...

Dinner consisted of eating in a restaurant that looked like Crackerbarrel.  I chose the salmon, potatoes, and red cabbage for my meal.  Not being a fan of cabbage, I tried this one and was surprised to learn that I actually liked it.  (More on this later.)  After dinner, we strolled around for a tad bit more before heading back to the hotel to pack our things since we were leaving the following the day.

Remember how I don't like cabbage, but this time I liked it, and I ate it??  Well I ended up having an allergic reaction consisting of hives all over my stomach and back.  Let's just say it was a very, very itchy night.  Next time, I'll just stick with my dislike of the stuff.



As for our departure day, it was LONG.  We took a two hour train back to Paris.  Took a 45 minute train from the center of Paris to the airport.  And then flew for 2.5 hours back to Malaga, Spain.  And last, drove an hour and a half to Priego de Cordoba.

All in all, if you can't tell from that smile, I loved my weekend France.