Viva La Feria

Feria, the big famous one being in Sevilla that I went to, takes place in different towns in Andalucía at different times in the Spring (except for Malaga's feria which is in August). How does a store that is devoted to one holiday/time of year stay open? Do they make enough money during this time of year that they can afford to stay open all year long?? Do people buy clothes and accessories for feria in the off season? Is this store actually not open all year, but just opened recently and that's why I noticed it?? I need to know how this works.

Feria Sevilla

After my weekend in Lagos I made a spontaneous appearance at the Feria in Sevilla. It was the last night of the week long celebration, but still a great time!

Feria means "fair" in English and dates back to 1847 when it was originally organized as a livestock fair. Feria is held two weeks after Semana Santa. The way Feria works in Sevilla is that over a thousand "casetas"are set up in a section of the city called "Los Remedios." A caseta is a tent fully equip with furniture, decorations, full menu, bar, dancing and music. There is a doorman that monitors the entrance so that only members and friends of members are allowed in. Casetas can be owned by families, groups of friends, trades or political parties. Usually there are about 30 members to a caseta. For this reason, you cannot fully enjoy the Feria unless you are a member of a caseta or know someone that has one. Many malaugeños that I have spoken to do not like the Feria in Sevilla because of this-way too exclusive. So if you are a sevillano, Feria is a week long celebration of eating, drinking and spending time with family and friends...sound like pretty much every day in Spain rigtht?

Aside from the casetas, there is a massive carnival with games, rides and amazing junk food. It felt more American than Spanish to me...

Above: Outside the caseta

Above: A view inside the caseta

Above: Me holding up the traditional Feria drink- tastes like Sherry

Above: With Manu's family and the DiscoverSevilla crew inside his caseta

Above: Doesn't this girl look like she is having the time of her life!

Above: Typical Feria dress

Spanish Children

This photo was taken last night at Feria in Sevilla. I have just one question. Why are Spanish children sooooooo much cuter than other children?? I mean are these children not THE most precious things you've ever seen!?!? Or maybe since I've been spending most of my time this year with kids I have a new affinity for them...No, Spanish kids are lo mejor del mundo.

Semana Santa

Don't be alarmed at the photos. This is not a KKK celebration , it is a procession from Semana Santa in Málaga! For those of you who don´t know, Spaniards don´t celebrate Easter like we do in the United States. In the south of Spain at least, the biggest celebrations being in Sevilla and Malaga, there is a week long celebration of music, dance, theater, culture and religion during the last week of lent called Semana Santa which means "Holy Week." The week is defined by its stunning processions. Generally each procession boasts a float with either the Virgin or a scene from Christ´s passion. Holding up each float are about 40 or 50 men called "costaleros" who haul the float on their shoulders and control the swaying motion of the float. The biggest difference between the processions in Malaga and Sevilla is that in Malaga the costaleros can be seen carrying the float while in Sevilla they are hidden under a curtain and you can only see their feet shuffling by.

The processions went on all week long, but since I was in Morocco I just got to see the last two days of them. There were dozens going on all day from 4pm until 4am right in front of my flat! Many times it was very difficult to exit and enter my building, kind of like how people living on Fifth Avenue feel during the Puerto Rican Day Parade. I felt privileged to witness such an important tradition in southern Spain (even though the outfits really creep me out.)

Día Internacional de la Mujer

When one of the teachers walked into class today a girl said, "felicidades!" so I thought that probably meant it was her birthday. However I was wrong, as I have been so many times in the past 5 months, today is " El Día Internacional de la Mujer Trabajadora," felicidades a mi! A fellow teacher told me that the holiday originated in the United States, but I am pretty sure we don't celebrate it... Maybe I've never heard of it because I went to an all girl school and pretty much every day was "el día internacional de la mujer trabajadora." Either way, I can't object to a Spanish holiday ( which is every other day of the week) because of course someone brought in a wonderful homemade nut/lemon/cinnamon cake and even though I am on a mean work out routine I decided to aprovechar and probar. No shots this time though... I wonder what we'll be celebrating tomorrow!!

Raining on our parade

Don't judge but this is what I wore at school today:
Hot I know...We all dressed up to celebrate the "Día de Andlaucía." Obviously it had to rain and ruin our celebration. The children had prepared dances and poems to present to the entire school in the playground. Many of them forgot their costumes, but the ones who didn't looked so cute!

El día de Andalucía

Today we started celebrating "el día de Andalucía" in school. The children learned a typical Andaluz dance and we ate typical Andaluz food. I would say every other day someone brings in a typical Spanish food for everyone to try- usual a pastry. It's such a cute tradition, but at this rate I'm definitely going to engordar. Thankfully it is not beach weather yet and I will have some time to get in shape. Today someone made these amazing mini donuts. The exact name is escaping me right now...The ingredients were: eggs, yogurt, butter, oranges, and a pinch of salt. One of the teachers made them right in the teacher's lounge and they only took a few minutes to cook.

Semana Blanca

Next week we have off from work due to Semana Blanca. Semana Blanca is celebrated in Andalucia to compensate for the vacation days that other provinces have throughout the year due to their feria, but since feria week is celebrated during the summer, in Málaga for example, we get a week off in February! Interesting policy, but no complaints here. This week is always at the end of February and sometimes coincides with February 28"El Día de Andalucía."

Friday at 1am my friends and I are taking the overnight bus to Madrid.

Friday at 10am we fly out of Madrid to Lisbon.

We will stay in Lisbon until Monday and then take a train to Porto.

Wednesday we will fly back to Madrid and I will remain there until Sunday to celebrate Rachaels birthday.

I'm so excited!

Carnaval- Cadiz

Carnaval is pretty much my new favorite holiday. It's like halloween in the United States but better because there is a giant bottelon that attracts people from all over. The costumes were amazing. My friends and I went as a clan of cupids in honor of Valentine's Day. We bought wings, halos and fabric to make toga like outfits. We made bows and arrows out of cardboard and then painted them- super creative! Naturally by the end of the night all the props had broken or disappeared. We noticed there was a very prevalent cross dressing theme. There were dozens of men dresses as nuns, or pregnant nuns, or beer maidens, and many women dressed as men. We asked a few people what was with the trend and they said its because its the one day of the year it is acceptable...It was hilarious. Basically we spent the whole night running around the bottelon taking pictures with people we thought had good costumes. Here are some of the memories:

I also learned important things for the future:

1. Do not drink don simon in public. Don simon is the cheapest wine you can buy (around 50cents a box) and is used as cooking wine. We buy it because it is cheap and we are on a budget, but apparently homeless people have the same thinking... people gave us weird demoralizing looks all night so I will not be drinking that again, in public that is.

2. Dress as something warm and fuzzy. It was freezing out and the people dressed as cows, birds and bears looked by far the most comfortable.

3. Do not eat the week leading up to Carnaval. There is so much good street food and you are bound to try all of it, or at least I did.

Carnaval- Málaga

In some parts of Spain, the week leading up to lent is called "Carnaval." It is a time for wild partying and cities such as Cadiz, the Canary Islands and Sitges are home to the biggest festivals and celebrations. Málaga has a celebration agenda of its own. This past weekend there were parades during the day and at night. Many people were dressed up in crazy costumes- children as lady bugs, men as soldiers and women as what seemed like Amish people? They marched along calle Nueva during the day and at night calle Larios and calle Granada were completely packed. To read more about the origins of Carnaval click here.

El Día de la Paz

This Saturday, January 30, is "El Día de la Paz" in Spain. It is to honor the life and message of Ghandi and is similar to our celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. This past week in school I have been teaching the children about Martin Luther King Jr. and why we celebrate his life and dream in the United States. I created a story book with pictures and bolded words such as "freedom," "equality," "civil rights, "boycott," and "African American" for the children to learn. I also gave them a coloring sheet that says "I have a dream" with a giant dove on it and below the image the word, "peace."

I also played a "game" with them to help them understand the inequality that African Americans experienced in the US in the time of MLK . I told them the right side of the classroom no longer had any rights. They were not allowed to speak during class, go to recess, go to the bathroom or talk to any of the kids on the left side of the room. I told them they were ugly, stupid and annoying to everyone. The children on the left side of the room could always go to recess and the bathroom whenever they want and were all good boys and girls. We continued class for 5minutes in this roleplay and then after we discussed how the children on the right side of the room felt without having any rights for what seemed like no particular reason at all. They all understood the message that we are all equal and should have the same rights no matter what our physical, or in this case geographical differences are.

The activity I really would have liked to do was something I found online. You take a white egg and a brown egg and you talk about the differences between them. Then you turn around and crack them both open and show that even though they are different colors, they are the exact same on the inside. Just like people! The main problem with this is it is impossible to find a white egg around here.

Above is a picture of the mural that the kids made in honor of this holiday.

Holiday

December 6 is the Día de la Constitución and December 8 is the Inmaculada Concepción in Spain. All you need to know is that there was no work yesterday or today. Somehow I was able to go grocery shopping yesterday, but today literally reminded me of Memorial Day weekend in New York City. There was no one around and everything was closed. So pretty much your standard Spanish Sunday. I did for some reason think that I would still have to give private English lessons. After I walked 45minutes to my student's flat only to be told over the intercom that we were in fact NOT meeting today I felt sort of defeated and that I am not as immersed as I thought. How could I think someone would want tutoring on a holiday?!