As I woke up this morning after a lazy Sunday to the sound of the wind howling, I realized it was that dreaded holiday … Valentine’s Day. Here in Spain it is celebrated with more intensely focused on lovers. This day is for people and their significant others, not for friends and family as it is celebrated in the US. They have however adapted to the US practice in the classroom as students put Valentines into a box and they later get passed around. And if you are in love, one is supposed to wear red on Valentine’s Day while peers as them questions about this person and who they are.
I was later called into school because there was a “comida” (food) being held at the school. I arrived after hours to help set up. We had 3 types of empanadas con carne, tortilla de patata, ajo (alioli, garlicy mayo), pan (bread), salchichas (sausage), albóndigas (meatballs), conejo (rabbit) and a million different types of dessert. They don’t joke around when it comes to homemade food, lunch and all the teachers together. And of course there was wine and beer as well. I probably ate my body weight in food! It was all SOOOOO good and I didn’t want to stop! I eventually started asking everyone for their recipe’s! After eating a lot and drinking, many of the teachers were quite merry and thus they decided to smoke in the classroom with the windows up. And our director was the one that suggested this. I was quite amused. After this we started playing some games. It was fun and there were lots of good laughs. Me and another American are always called the Americans (duh!) and then all the teachers start breaking out into the chorus of this song called “Papa Americano”. If you're interested, here is the song.
However, I suppose not all is dandy on this holiday, as I also woke up to the bells ringing in a morbid tone from the church. As I have recently learned, when someone dies in Vera the bells ring from the church in a very gruesome tone. There have been surprisingly three deaths in the past two weeks, one of which was a teacher’s father. The bells ring and the car carrying the coffin drives through to Plaza Mayor with a procession of people walking behind. Four people carry the coffin into the church and I assume then they have visitation for everyone and then visitation for just the family. However it is very brief and they go to the cemetery no more than an hour later.
Anywho … That has been my adventures for the last two weeks or so. We also ventured to the beach last week however it was nowhere near time for a bathing suit. I sat there in a fleece and a vest picking up sea shells and enjoying the sea. However I was told that it will be bathing weather in March! Well, I hear there is also warmer weather in the US so I hope that everyone survived the blizzard and is enjoying the warmer weather.
Besos!
