Feria

This past week in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a neighbouring town of Rota's, it has been Feria. Literally translated, the feria is a fair, but it is so much more than that! There are your typical fair rides and game booths, but that's not all... Basically feria is a week of fiesta, sherry drinking and sevillana dancing that usually takes place in the middle of May, and that locals look forward to all year long. The fairgrounds are so big, they have to be on the very outskirts of the city.

Once you enter the grounds, the streets are lined with colourful tents (casetas), lanterns, and horses and carriages, making you feel like you've been transported back in time. The casetas are the focal point of the fair. They’re set up by local families, clubs, societies and businesses and within each one is a new and exciting party with a plentiful supply of food, drink, 24-hour merrymaking, and non-stop dancing. It’s common for the locals to “caseta-hop” from one tent to another.

My friend Princess and I spent the whole day on Saturday just wandering around, and taking in the atmosphere of the whole thing. Most of the women and children were dressed in traditional Spanish flamenco outfits that you imagine when you think of Spain (or at least I do!) And everyone is well-versed in a dance called Sevillanas, of which there are 4 different types. These dances all follow a certain pattern, and somehow, all the dancers know which of the 4 is being performed at any given moment, so when you look out at the dance floor, what you see is a perfectly synchronized group of dancers clapping their hands, stomping their feet, twirling their hands around, and switching places with their partners, ALL AT THE EXACT SAME TIME! In case you can't tell, I was exceedingly impressed by the dancing!

Unfortunately, after a long day of drinking rebujitos (fino white wine, like Tio Pepe, mixed with Sprite or 7-Up) and tinto de verano (red wine mixed with lemon-flavoured soda), it was time for us to go home, although many of the locals would stay and party all through the night!

Semana Santa

In Spain, the whole week before Easter (this past week) is celebrated with processions and religious ceremonies.  Spain is renowned in the world for its Holy Week celebrations, and some of the most elaborate occur right in this area, and tonight we went to our first procession!

During the processions, which occur throughout the week, pasos are carried through the streets.  A paso is a lifelike wood sculpture of individual scenes of the events that happened between Jesus' entry in Jerusalem and his burial, or images of the Virgin Mary showing restrained grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the images are of great antiquity and artistic masterworks. These pasos (which usually weigh over a metric tonne) are physically carried on the neck of volunteers (usually from the age of 24 to 48) who are hidden inside the platforms, making them seem to move all on their own.

My first bullfight

Yes, it's true. Today I finally went to my first Spanish bullfight. It took place in Jerez, about a half an hour away from Rota, and I enjoyed it much more than I had imagined. This is one of the first bullfights of the season, and although there were quite a few people there, the bullring was far from packed.

The biggest thing that I noticed about bullfighting that I hadn't known before going was the ceremony involved in it. The presentation of the fight is more important than the fight itself. There were 6 bulls killed in total, and although I had expected to be horrified by the bulls' deaths, it wasn't that bad. Each torrero (bullfighter) took their turn with a bull and they would try to get close enough to stab it in a vulnerable spot. The way they got close to the bulls, but darted out of the way was almost like a well-rehearsed dance.


During the fights, the banderilleros (flag-bearing helpers) often stepped in with their pink flags, which they would use to distract the bull whenever necessary. Each fight began with the woman bullfighter on horseback, armed with a lance. She must stab a mound of muscle on the bull's neck, leading to the animal's first loss of blood. In the next stage, the banderilleros attempt to plant two razor sharp barbed sticks on the bull's flanks, ideally as close as possible to the wound where blood was first drawn.

At the end, the bullfighter re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape and a sword. It is a common misconception that the color red is supposed to anger the bull, despite the fact bulls are colourblind (the real reason that a red colored cape is used is that any blood stains on it will be less noticeable). He uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, both demonstrating his control over it and risking his life by getting especially close to it. When this happens, the crowd shouts "Ole!". Finally, the match comes to an end when the bullfighter makes a last stab at the bull. Then all the bandilleros come out and try to get the bull cornered, so that it gives up and lays down, and then they kill it with a single stab through its head.

When the bull is dead, the bullfighter may be awarded trophies, according to their skill in working with the bull, which can be one or two ears from the bull, the tail and the hoof. The crowd will often show its opinion of the fight by waving white handkerchiefs, and this waving continues after the trophies have been awarded in an attempt to get the bullfighter to throw their trophies into the crowd.

The most interesting part about this particular bull fight, was that the bullfighters were women , and some were even on horseback! I was very impressed by the way they carried themselves too... the show was all about showing confidence in the fact that they were the bull's master. Although this did backfire for one girl. She wasn't having very much luck to begin with (as in she couldn't a good shot at the bull) and at one point, she turned her back on the bull (which they do frequently) and the bull, who wasn't quite tired out yet, charged her. Then, to make matters worse, she fell down onto the ground and the bull trampled her a bit before she got up. But, in true bullfighter fashion, she stood up, and continued on with the show. Luckily she didn't seem to be hurt.

The other tradition that I found interesting (albeit a little disgusting) was that of cutting off parts of the bull and throwing them into the crowd. A couple of times Rachael and I had to back up to get out of the way of a flying ear, and one little boy sitting right in front of us managed to catch one (which apparently was a pretty big deal!) My only question is, what do you do with a bull's ear once you get it home?

More Carnaval

This weekend was the 2nd weekend of Carnaval in Cadiz, but unfortunately, we never even made it to Cadiz. Due to the combination of a bus strike, and horrible ferry schedules, we decided not to go to Cadiz because we would have been stuck there for 14 hours (all night long), or we would have had to take a very expensive cab ride. Our friends still ended up going to Cadiz, but Rachael and I decided to go out in Rota instead, as this weekend was our big Carnaval blowout.

It turned out to be a blast! Everyone was wearing costumes again, and I was very impressed with how original they were! My favourite group were some of Rachael's students who had each dressed up as a slice of pizza. When we saw them they were lying on the ground, trying to form a full pizza so that someone could take a picture.


To start off, the night, we each mixed a big 2 litre bottle of alcohol and juice to bring with us. We also brought plastic cups, so we could drink with everyone else in the street. We started off by watching some of the groups perform on one of the stages. Then later, we made our way to the big tent in the main square, where they were playing music. It was basically like a gigantic dance club. At times it was a little bit crowded, but we had so much fun we ended up staying until the early hours of the morning. We also headed over to check out some of the clubs by the port, but they were so packed we couldn't even breathe, let alone dance!

Since it was 5:30am by that time, we thought it was time to go home. All in all, it was a much better night that I had been expecting (since I was so excited to go to Cadiz) and I'm glad we didn't miss it!

Visiting a Spanish friend

Today Erin, Rachael, and I we were invited to spend the afternoon at Sonia's house. Sonia is one of the teachers from my school that I teach English to. She lives in El Puerto, but had a friend that lives in Rota that was going to visit her, so we got a ride there and then back home as well. The five of us had coffee together at Sonia's and just hung out at her house for a few hours. It was a really good way to practice our Spanish as it was very informal and relaxing. I find it very difficult to speak and understand Spanish when there is a big group of people around, so it was really nice.

One interesting thing that I had already found out at school earlier, but Sonia brought up again, had to do with the coffee mug that I had brought to school today. Today at school every time a new teacher saw the mug, they felt the need to pick it up and try to figure out exactly what it was and what it was for! I brought it with me from home so that I could drink my coffee on the way to school in the mornings. Apparently this is NOT something Spaniards do. In fact, they never ever eat or drink while they are walking or driving. Sonia also brought up a bunch of stereotypes that Spaniards (and probably Europeans in general) have of Americans because of American media. She pointed out that in the movies and on television, teenagers are constantly leaving the house without eating breakfast at all, or they grab something to eat on the way as they run out of the house. To Spaniards this is a very strange thing to do. Yet another cultural learning experience here in Spain...

Huevos and huevas

This afternoon in Jerez de la Frontera, Rachael, Erin and I learned a very important lesson about the Spanish language. We were ordering a bunch of tapas at a bar to share, and had decided to get some eggs. Fried eggs (huevos) with French fries are a popular dish to get here. We assumed that huevos a la plancha was simply a literal translation of fried eggs (since a la plancha usually means grilled). However, in our rush to order, we failed to notice that the word on the menu was huevas with an 'a', not huevos with an 'o' as we had thought. So when the waitress brought out the dish, we were surprised to see something that didn't really resemble fried eggs. The dish looked like some kind of meat with a white sauce similar to mayonnaise. Although I wasn't entirely sure what the meat was, I took a big bite, thinking that it couldn't be anything too horrible... and it wasn't too bad. I thought it was a bit plain, but kind of weird, so I didn't eat anymore. Rachael and Erin both thought it had a fishy taste to it.

Well, they were on the right track. When we texted our Spanish friend Nuria to find out what it was for sure, we were told that huevas are fish ovaries! That's right... I'm still not sure if there were actually eggs inside or not, but either way - gross!

So the obvious lesson to gain from this experience is that as insignificant as the difference between masculine and feminine may seem to us English speakers, one day it may mean the difference between eggs and fish ovaries for you too!

Halloween

Although today was Halloween, it pretty much passed us by without much notice in Spain. I've been talking to my teachers about Halloween all week, but on the actual day of the big event, Rachael, Erin and I had no plans. I was only at school for just over an hour today, as I only had one class, but I didn't see any costumes or decorations at all.

In this short amount of time, I did however have at least 3 different teachers tell me that I was not dressed appropriately for the weather. Keep in mind that although the weather has started cooling down here in Rota, and it was fairly windy today, it was still about 20 degrees Celsius. They all told me that the reason I was sick with a cold is because I was wearing sandals and not proper shoes! Apparently in Spain, it is a widely held belief that when your feet are cold, it causes all sorts of problems and it is just not good for your health! Either way, it was nice to have people worrying about me.

Getting groceries

Tonight we were lucky enough to be able to borrow our neighbour Nuria's car to go to the grocery store and stock up on heavy food. Normally we have to walk to the grocery store, and we only buy as much as we can carry, so today it was nice to be able to buy bottles of pop and cartons of milk without having to worry about that. Although that also meant that one of us had to drive. Erin had the honour of being the chosen one, since she is Nuria's roommate and was the one who actually borrowed the car. And she did a great job!

An interesting fact that we have discovered about Spanish grocery stores is that they all seem to carry completely different stock. I know this because we have 4 different grocery stores in Rota (Mercadona, Carrefour, SuperSol and Dia) and every time I go shopping at one of them, there is at least one thing on my list that I absolutely cannot find at the grocery store I am at, no matter which one it is. Some have a better pastry section, some carry different types of pasta and sauces but not others, and some just don't have certain food.

So far I am adjusting to Spanish food fairly well... mostly I live in denial and cook the same food as I do at home! There are some things that I've had to get used to though. For example, in Spain most milk comes in a box, not a carton. This kind of milk is only partially pasteurized as it is heated at a high temperature and only for a few seconds, a process called ultra-high temperature treatment (UHT). Milk pasteurized in this way retains more nutrients and can be stored unrefrigerated (as long as it is unopened) for six to nine MONTHS! Apparently this type of milk is very popular in Europe though, and I've jumped on the bandwagon . My only advice: ust don't drink the skimmed or semi-skimmed versions!

Strike

As the title of this entry implies, there was a strike at my school in Rota today! Why would the teachers go on strike you ask? Well actually, it was the students who went on strike! Mostly it was just some of the 1o and 2o Bachillerato students, but it was still a big deal for me, as I have never known students to go on strike at home. When I arrived at the school today, there was a large group of very loud students (they actually had a bullhorn and everything) chanting in the street, and policemen were there stopping traffic. The students were protesting the additional class time that was added to the schedules of all the Institutos in Rota as of this Wednesday. Our school decided that meant we would start at 8:15am (instead of 8:30) every day and that we would have longer classes (1 hour instead of 55 minutes) and that the second recreo (break) would only be 10 minutes (instead of 15).

Even the teachers weren't happy about this change, and they put up quite the fuss about it at the meeting we had on Tuesday when they broke the bad news to us. I can understand their frustration though, especially since school started almost a month and a half ago and they are being forced to change their whole schedules now. Not to mention the fact that they don't get paid anything extra, although they will be working longer every day.

Oh, and did I mention that we don't even have any idea when exactly all of the school holidays are yet? Plus we have a holiday coming up on Thursday, November 1st, and none of the teachers know if we have school on the Friday or not! Just another one of those things that takes some getting used to I guess!

A Day In The Country

Today we were lucky enough to be invited out to a Spanish home just outside Rota, or en el campo as they say in Spanish. A teacher at Rachael's school, Maria José, invited us to have lunch with her and her husband's family. They have a little house right on the beach, although it is very rocky there, especially compared to our beautiful sandy beach in Rota.

When we first got there, Maria José's father-in-law showed us around. He actually has his own beehives and makes homemade honey which he then sells in Rota. He explained the whole process to us, and it was quite interesting. He said he had just finished collecting the honey 3 days earlier, so all he has left to do now is bottle the honey.

They really put a lot of effort in the lunch they served us. We started with whole sardines, followed by an amazing tortilla española made by Maria José herself. Then we had plates and plates of different meats, cheeses, and salads. The main plate however, was the paella. Paella is a rice dish made with saffron and olive oil that comes from Valencia. It can be made with all different kinds of meat, but ours was made with chicken and pork. It is made in special paella pan, which is a large, shallow, flat pan. After dinner, we had tintilla, a very strong, very sweet wine that is unique to Rota because it is made from a special grape that grows in the area. For dessert, we had an amazing dish called torrijas, or bread pudding. It is basically French toast, but they let the bread go stale, and then soak in in the tintilla before frying it and serving it in honey. It was the most delicious dessert ever! Then after the dessert, we kept on eating, as they brought out fresh granadas (pomegranates).

Finally, we had another mini tour of the actual farm area, and got to hold 1-day old baby goats! All in all it was a great day in Spain!

Botellón

Last night Rachael and I decided to party in Rota, which we usually do at least once a week. Since we are both short on cash until we get paid at the end of the month, we did some predrinking at the apartment. I mixed up my new favourite drink which I discovered here in Spain - Malibu rum with pineapple juice (Malibu con piña) and we were also drinking sangria and doing shots of vodka.

We walked around town for a bit, trying to find a busy place. At first we headed to a disco which we had found while walking around, but it looked closed, so we went towards the port, hoping to find people and a busy club or something. What we found was even better - we ran into the botellón (literally translated, it means "the big bottle"). Botellón is what all the teenagers in Spain do - they take empty bottles or cups, alcohol, and some kind of drink mix or juice and they drink in a big group on the street. In Rota, the "designated area" happens to be along the port. There must have been about a hundred kids milling around, all between the ages of about 15 and 19. And although it became illegal to drink in public in December in Spain, there were police only a little ways away from the group of kids and no one was trying to break up the party, so I get the feeling that they kind of turn a blind eye to this kind of thing and don't really enfore the new law.

On the way home, we stopped in the town's Irish pub. Rachael and her parents had gone there a few times when she first got to Rota, and she had made friends with the Irish guy (Patrick) who owns the place. Because of that and because it's generally fairly busy, we like to stop by and have a drink once in a while. Not to mention the fact that last night, for the second time, Patrick gave us free shots! I could get used to that...

Lunch in Rota

This afternoon Nuria invited Erin, Rachael and me out for lunch with some teachers from her school. We met them around 3:30 PM and somehow this "lunch" didn't end until 9:00 PM! And that is only because Rachael and I decided not to go out for more drinks and finally just went home.

First we ate at a restaurant in town which serves mostly seafood... not exactly my favourite food in the world. But I made an effort to try everything, and it wasn't too bad. We had chocos fritos (fried squid), mejillones (mussels), and pulpo a la gallega (Galician octopus), and I actually didn't mind any of it. The squid was almost completely flavourless, just a little chewy and the mussels just tasted like the lemon we put on it. The octopus was little bit strange, but it was mostly the sucker from the tentacle that was disturbing for me, although I ate it anyways!

After this long Spanish-style lunch, we went for drinks at a couple of different places in Rota, then went down to the beach to watch the sun set, which was really pretty. After all this, the other teachers wanted to go have a light supper, but we decided to pass and went home for the night.

Siesta

It’s been a few days since my last post, and since then I have had two more days of conversation classes with the teachers at my school. It’s been fun and I have had a chance to get to know some of the younger teachers better as they invited me out for “coffee” with them the other day. It was a lot of fun, and I especially enjoyed finally having a chance to practice my Spanish!

I say “coffee” with quotation marks because in Spain, people tend to have a small breakfast in the morning, with maybe just some milk, or a piece of toast. Then at about 10:30 or 11:00 am, they have a 2nd breakfast which involves something a little more filling, like a sandwich, and is generally accompanied by some coffee. Their lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day for Spaniards, doesn’t happen until siesta time between 2:00 and 6:00 pm. Since lunch happens so late in the day, students at the schools don’t actually have a lunch break, and instead they get a 20-minute break in the morning and a 15-minute break in the afternoon. Then they just go home to have lunch at 3:00 pm when school finishes.

During the siesta, almost all the shops in town close (except for large chain grocery stores) and then they reopen after siesta at 6:00 pm and stay open until about 9:00 pm. This makes it really hard to get errands done during the daytime. Then since everyone has a big lunch so late in the day, supper doesn’t happen until sometime between 8:00 and 10:00 pm and is usually a much smaller meal than what we would have at home.

I think I’m slowly adjusting to this crazy schedule, and by the end of my eight months here, I might even be hooked!

Spanish School System

I finally had my first official day as a language assistant today! Although Erin and I were supposed to start at the school yesterday, Carmen was too busy to worry about getting us settled in yesterday, so we didn’t have to go in at all. Then today all we really did was figure out our schedules and go to one English class with Carmen. My schedule is actually pretty good, as I have Mondays off and then work Tuesday-Friday. However, it is almost like working full-time, since you have hour-long breaks in between classes. It turns out that I will have to be at school almost all day Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, even though I only have 3-4 hours of class each day. Wednesdays are good though, because I only have 1 hour of class. The majority of my classes (9/12 hours) are actually just conversation classes with the teachers in order to help them improve their English, but I think it will be really interesting.

In Spain the school system is a bit different than at home, although there are some similarities as well. Starting at the age of 6, all children in Spain are required to complete 6 years at a Colegio (elementary school), followed by 4 years at an Instituto (high school). When they are 16, they receive a Secondary Education Certificate. After this, continuing further with their studies is completely optional. If they decide they want to attend University, they must complete the 2-year Bachillerato program, also taught in the Institutos, and then pass an entrance exam (Pruebas de Accesos a la Universidad). They can also choose to take vocational studies (Formación Profesional). One thing that confused me at first was that their high school years are referred to by their initials (ESO – Educación Secundaria Obligatoria) and a numeric designation (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th).

So the class that I assisted in today was 1ª ESO, or grade 7. Basically all I did was talk to a group of 5 boys in English, asking specific questions that Carmen had provided, which made it really easy, but also kind of boring.

Patron Saint of Rota

Although I’ve only worked one day this week, we already have a day off. Tomorrow is the day of the patron saint of Rota, so it is a holiday here. Tonight we came across some of the celebrations in the old part of town, by our castle (that’s right, we have our very own castle!)

First there was a procession down the street which was made up of a marching band and horse-drawn carriages with girls all dressed up as if there were going to their weddings (in fancy white dresses), accompanied by guys in tuxes. Then later they did something on a stage and went into the castle... as you can see I have no idea what the meaning behind all of this is! But it was fun to watch. Then later on in the night there were fireworks and rockets that were set off.

Sevilla

Well, here I am in Sevilla, on the first of what I hope to be many weekend trips around Spain and Europe! As my new roommate's parents have a house here, I'm even staying here for free, so that makes this trip even better.

The shopping is great here, especially since there is an El Corte Inglés just down the street. El Corte Inglés is a huge department store chain popular throughout Spain. The store, at least from what I've seen, is generally anywhere from four to eight stories high, and you can buy pretty much anything: they sell electronics, movies, music, toys, textbooks, clothes, perfume, luggage, and there's usually even a supermarket in the basement of the building! The only misconception I had about this store before coming here is that I thought it was a store similar to Walmart. In reality, they have some of the most expensive prices and tend to sell high quality, brand name items. I imagine it's more similar to somewhere like Macy's in the States.

There's also a great big shopping mall type complex near El Corte Inglés, which has all the typically European stores like Zara, Mango, Bershka and the United Colors of Benetton. Not to mention the McDonald's and Starbucks in the food court!

The other part about shopping in Sevilla, that I personally enjoy the most, are the *illegal* street vendors. They sell knockoffs of brand name sunglasses, purses, belts, etc. and they also have piles and piles of burned DVDs for sale. I've seen these guys in Italy a lot, so they are very familiar to me. Obviously the prices are pretty cheap, although I imagine you have to haggle with the vendors to get them down to a realistic price. And I would recommend doing the haggling in Spanish to try to avoid the "I'm a rich tourist, please take me for all I'm worth" look.