It has been quite some time since my last post and that only means one thing...many stories to tell! Here it goes!
Every February, the city of Cadiz hosts the Carnaval de Cadiz (Cadiz Carnival). There are multiple carnavals throughout Spain yet Cadiz is the most famous of them all. Cadiz is a beach town located about 90mins Southwest via bus from Sevilla. Throughout the year, satirical groups train to sing about politics, topics in the news and everyday circumstances during the carnaval. These groups are called chirigotas. During the carnaval the chirigotas preform all over Cadiz, wearing elaborate costumes, and participate in a competition. The people of Cadiz are known to be the wittiest among Spainards. Therefore, you can only imagine the satire that comes from such performances. I was able to watch some of these performances on TV yet didn't understand anything, but I couldn't feel to bad cause neither did my Spanish roommate.
The other component of carnaval is normal, non-chirigota people (aka ME!) dress up in costumes and flood the streets well into the morning hours during the weekends. Some people like to compare it to a cross between Mardi gras and Halloween in the States. One big party. I, of course, decided this was not an event to miss. My American friends and I dressed up as the Ninja Turtles. I was Michelangelo. We hand made our turtle shells, 6-packs and masks. The best part of my costume was my natural weapon of a ponytail of not one braid but THREE braids! Anyway, we spent the hours of 9pm to 6am in Cadiz among people dressed as Smurfs, cows, chickens, Power Rangers...you name it. Sometimes I think Americans are crazy, but Spaniards always have another level. Never have I experienced a mass of hundreds of people who had put a significant among of energy into their costume just to stand in the plazas and streets to enjoy beverages with old and new friends.
February 14th arrived and so did this!!!! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. You know someone must care a lot about you when they find a way to send you a dozen, fresh, beautiful, hand delivered roses to you all the way in Spain. Thank you JT!!!
I received news my college friend Emily and her mom and boyfriend were coming to Spain to complete the Camino de Santiago. This translates to the Way of St. James. It is a pilgrimage route leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de la Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where the remains of the apostle St. James are buried. The original routes start in France, cross northern Spain and end in Santiago. However, today there are many routes that start in various places throughout Portugal, Spain and France. My friends were doing the Camino Portuguese, starting in Porto, Portugal and ending in Santiago. Galicia is a much greener and wetter region of Spain. They also speak a different dialect that combines Spanish and Portuguese, it sounds beautiful but is hard to understand. The camino and visiting the province of Galicia have always been on my list to do and fortunately I was able to met them and complete the last 3 days of their 14 day journey with them. We walked 9km, 20km and 14 km for the last three days. Each day provided different scenery ranging from the back alleys of small villages, the highway and beautiful, lush country side. It was absolutely refreshing to be out of a city and enjoy the sounds of nature. The camino is well sponsored by the government making it very civilized. There are hostels along the way that are only 5 euros for a bed, warmth and a hot shower. We usually had the place to ourselves since it wasn't the season to do the camino. The whole route is marked with spray painted yellow arrows randomly placed on the roads and posts. Rather unofficial but it works! There are many bars along the route that welcome "pilgrims" and are excited to hear all about you and why you have embarked on the adventure. We had one eager bar owner run after us after we decided not to stop in his bar. He wanted us to sign his pilgrim book, take pictures and give us "good luck" kisses on the forehead. My favorite part of the camino was arriving in Santiago at the cathedral. We arrived just before the noon pilgrim mass as bag pipes were playing Amazing Grace. Having only done three days I still felt accomplished and could see why some (Catholic) pilgrims become emotional upon completion of the spiritual journey. We went to Catholic mass. It was spoken in Gallego so I had no idea what was going on but it was fun to be at church in such a significant and symbolic building. Emily and company received official certificates for their completion of the Camino, I mention this only as they had to confirm there was a spiritual motive for completing the trip. That seems a bit strange considering the number of non-Catholic and non-Spaniards that complete the journey. Overall, it was great to have a piece of home and be exploring a new area of Spain all at the same time.
Flying over Galicia!
One of my favorite photos of the whole trip. Captures it all!
The bartender that was so eager to have us stop in for pictures!
Arriving at one of our hostels!
We made it to Santiago!
EMILY! So great to see her!
The weekend following Santiago, I worked for 2 days then enjoyed a 4 day weekend in Salamanca with a few friends from my program. The four day weekend was a celebration called Dia de Andalucia, which is a day celebrating this region I live in. Perhaps it's like Father's Day and Mother's Day but the Spanish actually have time off?! Who knows. Anyway, Salamanca is a city about 2 hours Northwest of Madrid and a 7 hour bus ride from Sevilla. Salamanca is a very small town, but home to Spain's oldest University. I would compare it to a Pullman and WSU, with the city is being built for the university students but 5000 times more beautiful and exciting. To sum it all up, Salamanca is one of my top favorite cities in Spain. It is clean, historic and peaceful. There are so many students that everything is very reasonably priced and the nightlife is superb. The air is fresh and the streets have a constant hum of people but there is no real city noise of buses, cars, motos, ambulances etc. We saw the whole city in one day. If you go into any souvenir shop you will find frogs and astronauts! Why?! Well there is an astronaut sculpted somewhere on the outside of the GIANT cathedral. We were able to find it but only after some man who was showing people where it was for money, showed us without us even asking him (we didn't pay him, and we didn't feel bad about it). "They" say it is peculiar that there is an astronaut sculpted onto the cathedral because the cathedral was built way before space travel was invented. I think someone just did a really good restoration and wanted to trick tourists. In addition to the astronaut, the university has a frog sculpted on the outside of it about the main entrance. Legend says students who don't find the frog won't be able to graduate!!! We found it once again, but only by cheating. They were selling postcards with pictures of where the frog was located rigth in front of the action.. Lame but I would've never found it!
The Cathedral!
The astronaut!...tricky tricky
Do you see the frog sitting on top of the skull?! Don't squint too hard. Imagine being on the ground and looking up and trying to find it!
Plaza Mayor..asbolutely stunning at night!
Street view of Salamanca!
The bulding on the right has seashells on the outside of it!
After having seen most of Salamanca in one day we ventured to a nearby city, Zamora, for the a few hours. We were pleasantly surprised to stroll down shopping streets among old churches, viewpoints over the river, and eventually a old castle and cathedral. It was nothing as spectacular as Salamanca but certainly I cool, non-touristy, off the beaten path spot to visit.
Crazy trees that were all connected to each other!
Besides the traveling, teaching and tutoring are going just fine. Everyday is a new adventure. I gave some lessons about how to bump and set a volleyball in PE class, a lecture on how to form scientific notation in 9th grade math class, and taught my tutoring kids Go Fish!!!! However, probably the highlight of the last month was playing "Kim Possible" with the 9year old who is fluent in English. Kim Possible is a cartoon on the Disney Channel, she runs around saving the world. So naturally, I became the Princess and Rosa was Kim Possible. I was "locked" in the tower of a castle (aka tied up with a rope she happened to have in her room (?!) to her blackboard) and had to be rescued by Kim Possible. Then we switched roles and I swear I Rosa wanted to be tied up! I didn't do it on my own will. Anyway, enjoy the pictures below illustrating our Kim Possible game. I can't believe it's already March! In two weeks is Semana Santa or Holy Week in Spain. We will have a one week break and I will be traveling to Italy!!! I look forward to telling you all how that goes. With just 3 months left in Europe you start to see a different light on your experience. You start to appreciate the small things that much more. I'm getting a bit nervous to return home and dive into the "real world". But you can't avoid it for forever. But as you all know from my last email, I'm setting sail one another surreal adventure in September, so life is good!
Please read last paragraph for description of these pictures :)
Hope life is fantastic wherever you may be!!!
