The Festivities Begin...

For about a month now the city has been looking more and more festive- 
I looooovvvveeee all the different lights in all of the main streets- these are some of my favorite- the chandeliers on one of the upper-scale shopping streets. You can also hear some Christmas music here and there, as well as many many nativity scenes, called 'Belens', which are more common than Christmas trees and tend to be very very detailed. 




Andújar
A few weekends ago Melinda and I jumped right into the holiday spirit with a little trip. On Saturday morning we loaded up the cars with lots of people and RIDICULOUS amounts of food and drinks and drove about 3 hours into the province of Jaén; on the bank of the river Guadalquivir.
Outside of the town Andùjar there’s this sanctuary/church called Real Santuario Virgen de la Cabeza that people go to to leave offerings and ask for things. (Some of the offerings we saw included photos, locks of hair, wedding dresses, prosthetic legs, etc.) The church is in the middle of all these gorgeous green hills, which are also home to the almost extinct Iberian Lynces (lynx).
In one of the valleys there is a tiny row of buildings owned by various pueblos. We stayed in the house of Campillo de Arenas, which is where a few of the guys in the group are from. There were about 30 of us in total, and no one knew everyone- a good mix of friends of friends of friends- so it was really laid-back and we all made new friends.
The house itself was amazing- two giant halls on the main floor and basement floor with giant fireplaces and a big luxurious bar. There was also a kitchen and patio outside. Upstairs were two bedrooms- caballeros y señoritas- each containing about 50 sets of bunkbeds and a small bathroom.

The weekend ended-up being non-stop, and I’m pretty sure no one got much sleep between all the games, dancing and food. We also saw a herd of ovejas (sheep) a few times!!!

On Sunday we all went for a little hike up to the church, as well as around the campo nearby before feasting on a giant giant paella. Then we cleaned like crazy and headed back home.

I was especially excited to make a few new Spanish girlfriends on that trip, one in particular named Beatriz (everyone calls her ‘Bea’) who I bonded with immediately. Through her I’ve since met some other girls and we’ve all gone out a few times- lunch at a Mexican restaurant, tapas, dancing. The Mexican restaurant in particular was really fun because there were about 20 of us and the electricity kept going out. Every time the electricity went out the owner came around with complementary tequila. It turned into quite the party… (pictured: me, Bea, Asun y Isabel)

Our little group of extranjeros (foreigners) also got together at Clare's house one weekend for a party- we're mostly teachers from the US, UK and a few others here and there, but it was a fun evening of charades and songs.

"Esta noche es Noche-Buena, 

y no es noche de dormir"


The big Christmas celebration happens on NocheBuena, December 24th. Traditionally the big family meal occurs on this night. I went with Angel to the home of one of his aunts- it was only the intimate family on his dad’s side (about 25 people) all of whom I had met before so I felt really comfortable. We sat at a long banquet table and passed around tons of plates with various things- the usual jamones, quesos y tortillas (kind of like a quiche), as well as fish, meat, various vegetables and then different little cakelets and a flan. We all drank wine and cava (kind of like champagne) and by the end of the meal everyone was singing Spanish Christmas songs and there were a few panderetas (tambourines) floating around. It was a lot of fun! One aunt then served as ‘Papa Noel’ and passed out presents to all of the children (the youngest was about 16ish) and she had even bought something for me- a beautiful bottle of Spanish perfume!!!

As the meal hadn’t even started until 10 p.m., we were late leaving but nevertheless went to some bars and discotecas for more drinks and dancing until the (not-so) wee hours of the morning. This resulted in me completely sleeping through actual Chrismas Day.


I have received many cards and a few amazing packages (gingerbread cookie kit from Aaron and Amanda, A ridiculously fun medley of Christmas activities, crafts and snacks from Heather, jalepeños from home) that have really made the holidays for me- thanks again, yall!!


Sabes Que…

Ever since ancient times, the Spanish have celebrated the coming of winter with a unique custom, called Hogueras. Reminiscent of the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia and the Northern European tradition of a Yuletide celebration, Spaniards celebrated the Winter Solstice by jumping over a fire, as a way to protect themselves against illness in the coming year. This was especially popular in the areas of Granada and Jaen. As Christianity gained power during the Middle Ages, Hogueras fell by the wayside, along with many other pagan customs.

http://spanish-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/christmas_in_spain

Boas Fiestas!!

That’s ‘Happy Holidays’ in Portuguese!

This past Monday and Tuesday were national holidays in Spain, so Angel’s family and I headed off to Lisboa for the break. We stayed in a little campsite just outside of the city- his parents in a camper-van and us in a little cabin (bungalow) that was just cute as the dickens.
We did a lot of sight-seeing (Belem, the Monasterio de los Jerónimos (pictured), Castillo de San Jorge, the Cathedral, etc) some shopping and ate some amazing Portuguese meals. (The meat was fantastic, but my favorite edible experience was the traditional tarta almendoa, (almond pastry, kind of like a pie).




Several other of my favorite experiences were:

1. Riding on the famous trolleys (tranvias). The city is Enormous!! Surprisingly so. And it is stretched over 7 giant hills, as well as a ton of smaller ones. We mostly stayed in Barrio Alto and Chiado (both in the city center) but dipped into the oldest area by the castle and cathedral a bit as well. That is where we rode the trolley (number 12) up and down some very exciting hills.

2. The famous Fabrica dos Chapéus, a specialty milliner where only a few customers are allowed to enter at a time, but each is paid a lot of attention, no matter how many times you try on every single hat in the store. We all ended up buying at least one (except Angel) and wore them for the rest of the day.

3. The Instituto do Vinho do Porto (the Portuguese “Port” wines). We did a tasting in this beautifully decorated old building. We tried several different types of Portos, my favorite being the Dow’s late bottled vintage 2004, as well as a few Portuguese cheeses. The thing about port wines is that they are all very very sweet and must be sipped slowly, but they really bring out some amazing tastes in the cheeses. (I recommend a cheese called évora, named after the town it is made in.)

4. Fado. This is the traditional song-style of Portugal, a bit like flamenco, but more melancholy. We went to the oldest Fado house in the city, Parreirinha de Alfama, a small cave-like room with a kitchen and about 12 tables. We ate fantastic food, and every few minutes or so someone would come out and sing, accompanied by a traditional guitar and a Portuguese guitar. A woman named Argentina Santos owns the place; She is an older woman who has been one of the most famous Fado singers for decades. She sang towards the end of the night and it was unbelievable what all she could do with her voice. (Watch her here.)

5. The Christmas Decorations!!!! This was hands-down my favorite part of the trip. Lisboa is a city that holds nothing back in the way of festivities: Every single street in the center was bedecked with giant beautiful designs of light- each different! Every time we turned a corner I couldn’t help but squeal with delight. There were also more than a few giant lit-up Christmas trees to be found around the city, as well as hundreds of homes with “Papa Noels” (Santa Clauses) climbing into windows or scaling down the sides of the buildings. We even saw one Santa driving a trolley!

It is also worth noting that many of the buildings themselves were tiled in beautiful, colorful, hand-painted and detailed designs.

SABES QUE…
There was an enormous and devastating earthquake that occurred in Lisboa in 1755, destroying almost all of the architecture (what wasn’t destroyed by the earthquake itself was ravaged by the consequential fires that lasted for days). This resulted in the Portuguese being some of the first to make giant steps in earthquake research and safer reconstruction.