So this exists...

After a friend of mine told me of their existence, I had to find some and try them for myself. It was not at all difficult.

Tastes like bacon.

Followup

So, I took some photos of my flat. It's decently big, and cheaper (and nicer) than a lot of places I looked at. I've been here for maybe two and a bit weeks now.

This is my room. It came with the creepy art and tons of built in shelves.

Here's my view looking left. This is a pretty common view in Lugo--an abandoned construction project, mostly apartment buildings. There are a ton of empty apartment buildings all over the city.

and right. It's a preschool, and every so often about eight million 4-6 year-olds swarm the yard and scream at each other. 

The kitchen. It's missing a tea kettle and a microwave, but other than that, totally functional. Made fajitas with one of the roommies the other day, and am having some other americans over for dinner tonight.

The living room, where I hang out when I'm home. That's my computer on the table. My roommate Johnny (he's Spanish) has the same one, but fortunately in maroon. There's also a tv (we have cable) but I couldn't fit it in the picture.

The bathroom. There's a bidet, but I haven't used it yet.

We're also lacking a clothes dryer, but so is everyone else in the country. Here's my neighbor's collection of green and blue shirts. I'm super paranoid about dropping anything down the chasm because I'm not sure how I would get it back. Some kind of string-and-pins contraption I think.

The City Where I Live

I've been going on some walking adventures around Lugo lately, running errands, socializing... That's it really. I say adventures, but I really mean getting lost. The city isn't really that big, as it covers less space than say Bellingham, but it's dense and convoluted. 

I happened to bring my camera today when I went to pick up my debit card from the bank, which is inside the muralla (the old Roman wall that surrounds the town center/downtown area).

Here's one of the plazas in the town center, kind of deserted in the bad weather.

The muralla, one of my main landmarks.

A statue in the Praza do Rei, another of my main landmarks. This means I'm almost back to my flat. Upon examining the plaque, this is not the king, so I'm not sure why he's here. I do like his fixie bike though.

And there's my building (the red one)! It's in a plaza as well, which makes giving people my address tricky, because it's not on a street. 

Of Octopus and Saints

So, it turns out that I just happened to move to Lugo during the biggest festival of the year--San Froilan. It's like a mix between the Rhody Fest and the Puallup Fair, but at the same time not at all.

I'm not sure what exactly the history is behind it--who San Froilan was or what he might have been famous for but it must have been something pretty awesome to get such a big festival in his honor. The celebrations last pretty much all month, although after the first week everything calms down a lot. There were firework shows at the start and end of the first week, and a zillion stands and rides and games were set up in the town center. The city also puts on parades and music shows (both traditional and modern), magic shows and fashion shows featuring traditional Galician dress.

People come from all over Spain to see the festival, mainly from the villages in the province of Lugo. (the city and the province have the same name. this can be confusing.)

The main attraction of the festival is the traditional San Froilan delicacy. Pulpo. My coordinating teacher, Julián and his wife Sofía took me out for lunch a couple days ago to one of the many pulperías. We went to a real restaurant, but near the attractions there is a whole row of portable restaurants (more than stands, they have tables and kitchens and pleasant lighting inside) that real pulperías from around Lugo (the province) set up for the month. Usually they are booked full the entire month, but because of the crisis they were nearly empty when I walked by, just before lunch time on a sunday. Even the restaurant we went to was fairly slow.

We had wine and empanadas first. They cooked the pulpo in the copper pot you see in the background.

Sprinkled with spicy paprika and sea salt, served with bread and toothpicks.

Curly tentacles. 

Not at all like squid like I expected, but quite good.

Hello! I thought I would be more on top of making posts, but I guess not. Things have been busy and slightly stressful, but also exciting and new.

Lugo is more of a city than Bellingham, a little bigger population-wise, but much less spread out. There's the old town center inside the roman walls, a university, which is actually the veterinary branch of the university of Santiago de Compostela. There's also a mall outside of town a ways. I'll post some photos soon, promise.

A Fonsagrada is about an hour away by car, and it is just about the most beautiful drive I have ever gone on. There's mountains and fog and old stone villages and huge modern windmills.

Here's a photo of the school, Fontem Albei.

I´m moving in to my new flat on monday (tomorrow) and hopefully we'll have internet soon, so I can be more punctual about posting things.

chao