Anniversaire a Paris

Yesterday I arrived in Paris and met my friend Mary to go Swing dancing beside the Seine. As the clock struck midnight we walked past the Notre Dame cathedral to catch the Metro back to her appartment and I thought about all of the exciting adventures I have had during my 'magic/champagne birthday year'. Now that I am 28 I will have to start thinking about 'growing up'. To start the day my friend prepared me a big breakfast of a fruit salad, ice cream and bought some fresh French croissants. I opened my sealed card from a friend in Lugo and put on my new t-shirt from my friends in Bilbao. It's exciting to have birthdays ! Thanks for all of the e-mail greetings from everyone.

Tommorrow I am travelling back to Courseulles-sur-Mer in Normandy to visit friends,to go to a wedding and to celebrate Canada day with Canadians at the Juno Beach Centre. Then the week after that I am going to Taize for the week and then back to Spain to show my parents and sisters around. The plan after that is to visit family in England and then back to Saskatoon on July 28th for my cousin's wedding.

Visiting Cantabria

After what felt like a very long bus ride I arrived in Santander and met up with my friends from Bilbao. We spent the first night in the capital and the next day travelled to the town of Comillas. For a small town there is a lot of beautiful architecture which included Gaudi´s Capricho, the University Pontificada and the Sobrellano palace. Unfortunately they were all closed the day we arrived because of the first now being a restaurant, the second is under extensive renovations and the third was being used as the decor for the shooting of a film called ´Barbykiller´.

After a walk around town we went to rest for the San Juan celebrations that were starting at midnight. St. Johns day on the 24th is celebrated with bombfires and fire works. When we arrived there was a celebration of light on the beach. I had a sip of honey orujo and jumped in the ocean for a quick swim. It is a tradition to make a wish as you jump over a fire. We chose a small one and joined a lively group of people. Soon after they decided we should start playing games and the first started a little like ´Ring around the rosy´. Everyone held hands and ran in a circle singing ´Pase mi si, pase misa, por la puerta de Alcalá, él de alante corre mucho, él de atras se quedará a limpiar el orinal con azucar y a aguaras´ At the end the circle became a variation of London bridges and once caught you were asked a question ´naranja o limón´ and depending on your answer you were put in a line for a tug of war. Crazy Spanish celebrations ! Other variations of St. John´s day celebrations I´ve heard include eating sardines and setting a plate at the table for your dog.

Random notes from Spain

Queen Elizabeth II is known as Isabela II ( other family members include Felipe, Carlos, & Guilermo)

To celebrate sports victories it is a popular tradition to go to a fountain. On the 17th of June a large crowd of ´Meringues´ ( Real Madrid fans) gathered around the Cibeles fountain to celebrate the team´s winning of La liga title. In Lugo the crowds were much smaller at the Fuente del Rey.

If you notice football players do not sing along with the Spanish anthem it is because there are no words.

Abracadabra - pata de cabra ( a la goat´s foot) is how to cast a spell in Spanish

In the June 10th 5K race the computer had my name come up as Julian Sanchez from Madrid and this mysterious person was sent an SMS with my time.

When I fill in a form my sex is ´M´ for mujer, not male and to find a washroom I look for a ´D´ for damas. The reverse is ´h´for hombre and ´C´ for cabellero.

When I was asking about how to donate my extra clothes to a charity I was told that often people leave clothes in a bag outside of the garbage bin for gypsies.

To cheer a singer at a concert you yell ´Guapo´ which means beautiful.

My last weekend in Lugo
When I get a chance in the next little while I will post some of the photos from the colourful Eucharistic procession that took place around the Cathedral in Lugo on June 17th. This procession commemorates a donation from the state for the purchase of candles to light the eucharistic inside of the church. There were bright coloured costumes, several bands, some dancers and of course some rain...

Lugo was sad to see me leave as I begin my trip to France.

Arde Lucus

It all started with a red poster that appeared one day in shop windows, bus shelters and posted along empty walls. It was hard to tell what the event was about because other than the name ´Arde Lucus´ at the top and the black silhouette of roman helmet or building at the bottom there was little other information. The first people I asked told me they thought it was an opera and then looking on the website I found a program of events along with costume and hairstyle reccomendations http://www.ardelucus.com/. I had also heard something about free cloth distribution, so I set out the next day to look into it. I found myself in a line-up (well actually two, but I made a deal with another woman to wait in one line for me, while I waited in the other for her) outside of the music house. I had a couple friends join me and eventually take over waiting while I excused myself to teach an English class. At the end of the two and a half hour wait and due the high demand we ended up with material for a Celtic Lepress costume.

The next day I met my friend Daniela to start sewing the costumes. I think the last time I had used a sewing machine was when I was about 10 years old, but luckily it is a little like riding a bike. On the first day we sewed a very simple dress and then on the second and third days we worked on the cape. We made a rather elaborate design by cutting the cloth into a half circle shape, hemming the edges, making fitted shoulders and then by adding a pointy hood (if needed the hood could also be used for a Semana Santa Nazareno outfit)

On the Friday afternoon we put on the newly sewn costumes and walked around to check out the event. Inside the roman wall banners were put up and down the streets, new statues of the cities Roman founders were put up in the main square and in front of the city hall a small wooden fort had been built. In the main square you could now walk through a small market set up in tents where you could buy bread, meat, cheese, jewellery and other trinkets, and meanwhile roman soldiers marched through the streets and a few horse drawn chariots went by. People greeted us by saying ´Ave Caesar´however since we were Celts we did not respond, luckily no one tried to take us as slaves. It was a short trip back in time because the skies opened up and it started to pour rain.

The next day the festivities continued and so did the rain. At the end of the costume parade we took shelter in a small bar at the corner of the Rosalia Park. Umbrellas did not go with the costume so we had to wait the downpour out, but lucky for us we were ´stuck´in the bar with a group of a couple bands from the parade. It was wet and quiet after that until midnight when a crowd gathered for the Queimada in front of the city hall. There were several cauldrons of burning orujo, a large man dressed in a grass costume chanting a spell over the drink and some shrieking `meigas` (witches) accompanied by gaitas (bagpipes) to liven everyone up. The program listed activities until 5am and I am sure the party continued even later, but I snuck home to bed a little earlier.

Spanish smiles

In Spain the tooth fairy is a small mouse called Pérez, or Ratoncito Pérez.

Instead coming from a cabbage patch, the stork brings Spanish babies from Paris.

The most common tea label in Spain is called ´Hornimans´

One of my English students was explaining the phrasal verb ´to try on´ and suggested that he went to the store and tried on a suitcase. What makes it funnier is that for a Spanish speaking person the most natural pronunciation of the word suit is sweet.

I still find the Spanish ´rr´ sound next to impossible to pronounce. I could probably stand in front of a mirror and pretend to be a motor for hours and still pitifully roll my double r. To help me one of my friends suggested to me that it is just like the English pronunciation of the word RRRRabit.

The surprise of my roommate David when he came one morning and saw that I had put a wanted poster for him on the kitchen door to remind him it was his turn to clean two weeks ago.

When you are in a bar and request a song at 4a.m. and the d.j. tells you it is too early to play it.

Trying to understand the cultural differences in Spain, when I ask why they do things a certain way the most common answer seems to be ´Spain is different´, a former tourism slogan. However when I start to explain some of things that we do in Canada I get the impression sometimes that they think ´Canadians are crazy´

Today I am celebrating seven months in Spain.

Madrid day 2 & 3- Everywhere but the city, well almost

The next morning in Guadalajara my friend and I got up to catch the eight o´clock bus to the small town of El Casar. I was excited to finally get a chance meet her father. The bus that drove up could probably also have been called a van and as we sat down inside the driver turned on the radio to blast Top 40 music. It was like being at a dance party, but a little too early in the morning. During the trip we seemed to take all of the narrowest, windiest roads and about an hour later, just as I was starting to feel carsick, we finally arrived. Since we were early we stopped in a bar for some breakfast. A popular morning treat is chocolate and churros. This consists of a hot chocolate, pudding-like drink that you eat with churros that are like a type of doughnut, or fried pastry that you can dip in the chocolate. It´s like having dessert first thing in the morning.

After the visit I got on another bus for Madrid. I had a small project of trying to find some Maple syrup. The day before I left I had called up the Canadian Embassy in Madrid for some help. It was strange to hear the ´Hello, Bonjour´ greeting instead of the typical ´¿qué?´ or ´what?´ when they answered the phone and after announcing my query my friendly correspondant suggested I check in the Corte Inglés department store in the gourmet food section.

On my second arrival in Madrid I made my way to the Puerto del Sol and joined a throng of tourists in the streets. It was a little strange because it seemed like the common language was now English, not Spanish and there were so many people. Before pursuing my syrup quest I stopped at the Plaza Mayor to eat the popular ´Bocadillo de Calamares´ ( a fried squid sandwich) and then went to look for the Corte Inglés. It was very nice to feel the air conditioning when I walked in because it must have been about 40C outside that day. I went up and down every aisle in the grocery part of the store and for a while thought the only thing I would be able to find was a package of Maple leaf-shaped cookies in the international food section. Finally in the baking food aisle, below the various items for cake decorating I saw two small bottles of Maple Syrup and I picked them up. Funnily enough I have since learned that Maple syrup has significant antioxidant properties,is used in a number of diets and can be found in health food shops in Lugo. To share the Canadian delicacy with others I have adapted a Maple pie recipe and have brought the small tarts to my Spanish classes. Most people suggest it tastes likes honey, however one of my roommates told me he thought it was more like cough syrup or ´jarabe´.

Back in Madrid I made a short stop to visit the open doors event at the Prado art gallery to see their new exhibit spaces in the new extension, and then caught the train to Alcalá de Henares. The nearby town is most famous for being the birthplace of the author Cervantes and for its historic university. There I met up with a couple friends and we went to visit the ´International Gathering of Living Statues.´ All along the main street mimes were posed in elaborate costumes and waited for someone to drop a coin in their hat before starting to move. It was fun to see all of the different characters, but more than anything else what caught my attention in the town were the beautiful roses that literally filled the main square both rich in variety and colour.

The Spanish day sometimes seems like it never ends and you really should try to take a siesta to try to keep up with it. Later when I arrived back in Guadalajara my friend was ready and waiting for me to go out to a concert and when we got there I ended up eating supper around midnight. The next day, or a continuation of the previous, was a blur of trains and buses as I went to meet some friends in another town/suburb of Madrid called Alcobendas. I met them for church and then we had lunch together afterwards. That night when I got back to Lugo I was very happy to see my bed.

International Museum day

Another day to celebrate, so I went to the capital to take in some museums. No sooner had I arrived in Madrid than I was at the Atocha station asking for directions on how to find the Reina Sofia museum and then on a guided tour. Just before 4:00pm I went to stand with a small group of visitors at the tour desk. Just after the hour I noticed the man behind the desk start to make enquiries asking if anyone had seen the guide. A short while later an older woman with bright red hair came walking in quickly and when she reached the entrance she turned and walked away from us. The man came running out from behind the desk calling ´Maria Jose, Maria Jose´. As they walked towards us you could hear him explaining to her that we were her group and she seemed a little surprised. As we were introduced someone asked what we would see on the tour and she replied that we were going to see some of her favourite works of art on the 2nd floor and that it was not worth going to the 4th floor because the works were too abstract for anyone to understand.

Up we went in the glass elevators to stop first at a small model of the museum where she explained its layout and her discontent with the new extension that was being constructed. The parliamentary guide evaluator side of made a small note of her lack of objectivity and neutrality, but more than anything else I was intrigued by her frankness. I had overhead an explanation to some visitors before the tour started that the museum guides were all volunteers and retired people. She had a lively presence and the men on the tour followed her quite closely. It was as if we were a group of her friends that she was showing around. We would arrive at a painting and she would start to mention the things she liked about it. It was occasionally pointed out by a visitor that the name on the display card suggested a different painter and she would say thank you, take a closer look at the card and continue.

My favourite part of the tour was her emotive description of ´Guernica´. She took time to carefully describe each character, the intensity of Picasso´s work and her memory of being six years old during the war. For group interaction while looking at one of Dali´s paintings she would ask´I am not sure what that is, does anyone know?´ At that point I also noticed that one of the men wasn´t just paying close attention to the guide and surprised me, just after viewing the Guernica mural, by opening up his bag and taking out a chocolate bar and offering it to me. Now two hours into the tour, the visitors were now her friends and they convinced her to move onto the fourth floor, at which point I sadly had to excuse myself to catch a train to meet my friend in Guadalajara.

Then no sooner had I arrived in Guadalajara than I found myself part of my friend´s Karate class, which was another adventure.

May long weekend in Galicia

Instead of having the Monday off for Victoria day I had the Thursday off for the Día de las Letras Gallegas, an annual celebration of Galician literature held on May 17th. The different regions of Spain have different ´bank holidays´ in May for saints, writers, etc. In Galicia the 17th was chosen as a day to celebrate the Galician language in 1963. That year was the centennial celebration of the first publication of Galician literature by Rosalia de Castro in 1863. I first learned about the holiday from my dance teacher who I overheard explaining that she was preparing some students to dance in the main square of Lugo on the 17th at 1:00pm with a group of 600 young people. I was intrigued and went to the tourism office for more information on the day´s events. The only available info. was a press release which the man in the office printed off for me.

On the Thursday about an hour before the dance event I started to see children in traditional dress in the streets, so I headed towards the town centre. When I arrived I saw a group of people standing around the statue of Anxel Fole, another Galician author and when I got closer I suddenly found myself part of a group on a literary walk. The poetry of María Mariño, the author selected to be recognized for 2007, was being read and sung while the group walked around the old center of Lugo. I stayed with the group for a while and then skipped out when I heard the gaita music playing. The children were lined up all around the main square with band in the centre. As they started to dance I recognized some of the Muiñeira and Jota dance steps from my classes and was almost ready to join in. I´ll have to find a costume for next year…

To be recycled or not- Styrofoam

Since I moved into my new apartment I have been trying to recycle and in the process trying to encourage my roommates to as well. When I first brought up the subject I was told that we should wait until everyone was home to have a small meeting so there wouldn´t be any confusion. There seemed to be a lot of concern about confusion. When we met we set up pails for paper, organic, miscellaneous waste, plastic/metal and glass. After a couple days I noticed there was indeed some confusion. To help I decided to make some coloured arrows to identify the containers. I chose the same colours as the plastic bins that we have in the street in front the apartment: blue for paper, green for glass, yellow for plastic and then invented orange for organic and red for garbage. I kept finding aluminum foil mixed in the paper bin, so I decided to ask about it. That is when I found out the ´paper´ issue was actually a language issue because in Spanish aluminum foil is called ´papél aluminum´ or aluminum paper. At that point we also cleared up the fact that organic products are not separated in Lugo, but they are in other parts of Galicia, so we eliminated an arrow. I think they must think I am obsessed about the environment and I tried to explain that when in doubt to opt for the miscellaneous garbage bin.

The next concern that has arisen is the question of styrofoam and on this topic one of my roommate´s and I are opposed. I stand that it is not recyclable because I have never heard of it being recyclable and David argues that it is because it often has a recycling symbol on it. I didn´t know who to ask so one day I decided to go to the city hall with a small styrofoam tray in my backpack. I wasn´t quite sure of the name in Spanish, so I thought having an example would help. At the Ayuntamiento a friendly man spoke with me for a while and then directed me to another city administration building. When the man started to describe its location I immediately said ´oh! the building with a statue of a horse and a zebra in the parking lot´. Sometimes I have a strange sense of bearings, but what is stranger yet is the placement of these statues between parked cars.

In any case my styrofoam tray and I continued on our mission and inside I took a ticket for the citizens concerns counter and waited. About 15 minutes later I got to ask my question and was sent to the third floor to the environment department. They had no idea either and gave me some coloured pamphlets and suggested I contact the company Ecoembes. I went to the library and looked at the website but it wasn´t very clear. When I got home I explained my enquiries and my roommate said he would phone, but he still hasn´t gotten around to it yet. Most people here seem to be of the opinion that because of the cost of recycling all waste is burnt regardless if it is sorted or not.