Well, I'm closing in on the half-way point of my stay in Spain this year and can't believe how quickly it's going by. I've been here for four months now and I can tell the next five months are going to fly. While I miss everyone a lot back home and I've definitely had my homesick moments, I'm not ready to move permanently back to the US to start my "big girl career". At this point, I'm trying to figure out what my options are for staying at least one more year in Spain. I love my job and the school where I work and if I can get through the renewal process (which is a bit complicated) then I would love to come back to this job. But I'm also looking into some other possibilities...we'll see what I can get figured out!
New Years Eve in Spain is celebrated by eating twelve grapes at midnight. Everyone crowds around their tv with their cup of grapes to count down to midnight and watch the official clock in la Puerta del Sol in Madrid chime twelve times. Each time that the bell rings, you're supposed to eat a grape before the next bell rings. New Years Eve morning I got a call from Conchi inviting me over for dinner and to eat the twelve grapes that night. This time it was just the three Torres kids (Migue, Nacho, and Rocio), Conchi, and me. We had a lot of fun and Conchi had a great meal ready for us. Once we were done with dinner, Nacho poured the champagne and Rocio got the twelve grapes ready for each of us as we turned the tv on to the celebration going on in la Puerta del Sol. We made it through the grapes and said bye to Nacho and Migue as they went off to prep for the party that they were having in a bar just outside of town. Rocio and I hung out for a little while with Conchi and then around two or so headed out to meet up with some of her friends.
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| The 12 grapes |
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| Rocio, Me, Nacho, and Conchi on NYE |
The little Spanish kiddos are really lucky. They not only get to celebrate Christmas with Santa BUT they also have the holiday of the Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos) with los reyes being the big holiday. Before going on Christmas break, I asked one of my students to explain los reyes to me. The Three Kings are basically the three Wise Men who brought gifts to baby Jesus. What they do to celebrate in Spain, according to my students, the kids have to clean their shoes and leave them out at night ready for the Three Kings to fill them with presents. They also leave glass of Anise for the Three Kings to drink (kind of like a glass of milk and cookies for Santa) and then while the kids are asleep, the Three Kings enter through the window that is left open and leave their gifts in their clean shoes.
The day before Los Reyes, there is a big parade through each Spanish city and another L/C assistant and I went to check it out. There are a bunch of floats and each one, we were told, tosses candy out to the crowd...toss is not the right word for it. They literally huck the candy as hard as they can at the crowd and if you're not paying attention you just might get your eye put out by a stray piece of candy flying by. All in all it was a lot of fun, and a really cool experience to see pretty much all of Granada in the streets ready to fill up their bags with candy.
In my first four months I haven't done a whole lot of traveling, but I'm heading to Morocco next weekend. When I studied abroad two years ago, Morocco was one of my favorite trips just because it was such a different culture and I knew I wanted to go back. I'm supposed to get paid (for the first time in 4 months - woo hoo- next Friday) so during the next 5 months my goal is to travel 2 weekends a month. Right now, I'm hoping to make it to Dublin (for St. Patty's Day), Prague, Germany, Switzerland in the Spring for Canyoning (check it out on youtube), San Sebastián, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela, and Barcelona.
Hope everyone is doing well and that 2011 is treating you well!!
Besos!!
Megan
