Snow Day

My carpool nearly died coming home from the school yesterday coming down a mountain road covered in 2 inches of snow at about 25 mph, fishtailing and drifting into the oncoming lane... But we didn't die! Because Carmen, the teacher who was driving, is an awesome driver. 

This was Fonsagrada on Monday. It started snowing in the late afternoon, and was sticking by the time my carpool left at a little after 7pm.

Of course the Xunta declared that there would be classes all week, so everyone went on Tuesday. The Xunta is the Galician government, seated in Santiago in the western part of the Autonomous Community and is in control of the education system, including snow days.

And this is Tuesday! I took this photo right before lunch, so maybe 2:10, 2:15 ish, and it kept on like this even after we left at around 5.  When we arrived, there was a little snow on the ground from the night before, and it was just starting up again with a few melty flakes. 

A lot of the students live outside the town in the surrounding villages, so the busses came after lunch to take them home. The ones who live in Fonsa stuck around til the end of classes, which meant the teachers had to stick around as well.

one more snow picture from tuesday morning

Today, the ones who live in Fonsa did show up, but I think that was only like 7 students and 3 or 4 teachers. 

Galego: curso de iniciación

So, last week the Galician teacher at my school was kind enough to lend me some introductory materials for learning Galician. For clarification: in English--Galician; in Spanish--gallego; in Galician--galego. 

The only problem is that the books are solely in Galician--no Spanish translations. But I don't think this'll be that big of a problem.

But at least I'll be able to pronounce everything!

O paisaxe

Last week I went on a field trip with the students to some of the surrounding villages and a waterfall, about 12.5km in all. I was pretty impressed with the students for hiking so far without complaining too much!

Here's the route we took!

This is the village where we started.

A neat rock formation

Looking down on the Rio Lamas

A little church, still in use today. Very typical.

Walking under the chestnut trees.

Proof I was there! Note, I didn't take all of these photos. Some were taken by the other teachers.

One of the villages from a distance.

The waterfall. Two of the boys decided to go swimming in the pool underneath it, even though it was november and raining.

At the end, the bus picked us up and took us back to Fonsagrada

A Coruña

Alternate title: Look at my Vacation Photos!

So, this past weekend was a long one, and I took the opportunity to make a trip to A Coruña, which is a city of about 300.000 people (FYI, in Europe, the use of commas and points in numbers is reverse of that in the states) in the northwestern corner of Galicia. It's considered the starting point of the 'Costa de la Muerte' (Death Coast), where there have been millions of shipwrecks over the centuries (I made up that number). But, I don't remember whether the Death Coast proper is to the north or south of A Coruña. Either way, it's near here that there was a big tanker spill about ten years ago.

Despite that, it's a very prosperous, modern city with lots of tourist attractions. 

I went with another girl from the Auxiliares program, Laura from Ireland. We took the train, which took about 2 hours. We'll take the bus next time.

Train station in A Coruña. The blue thing on the far wall is like the town crest. It was on everything--manholes, trash cans, signage...

After getting off the train we stopped for coffee and churros (a Spanish thing, not a Mexican thing, apparently), then went to the Parque de Santa Margarita, in the center of which is the Casa das Ciencias, a science museum for children. We had a blast anyway, and it was only 2 euros to get in! The written portions of the exhibits were in an interesting mix of Castellano, Gallego and English. Some had all three, while others had only Castellano and Gallego, while some were either Castellano or Gallego, or a mix of the two.

Did I mention that A Coruña is on the sea? I'm not sure what the tower is on the end of the point--I'll have to go back and check it out next time.

We saw some real surfers too, but these ones were a little easier to photograph.

One of the main attractions in A Coruña is the Roman lighthouse, called the Torre de Hércules. It still is a functioning lighthouse, and you can go inside if you like. Laura and I did not, because we were going to meet up with one of the teachers from her school and didn't have time. 

One of the main pedestrian streets in the town center.

In front of the town hall. It's quite a bit bigger than the one in Lugo.

This is Maria Pita, the town hero. She drove out the British in the 1400's or something. Pretty badass! In the statue, I think she's about to spear some poor British soldier on the ground.

We only saw a small part of the city, so we'll have to go back another day and check out some of the museums and the aquarium.

Halloween

Halloween in Spain is an interesting thing. Traditionally, Carnival (Mardi Gras in the states) was the holiday where people dressed up in costumes and kids ate candy. But in recent years, thanks to American TV and other influences, the American version of Halloween has become more popular. 

The American version of Halloween has Celtic origins. This is where we get jack-o-lanterns, bonfires and the presence of malevolent spirits. Galicia also has Celtic roots, so in a way the introduction of the American version of Halloween is a return to the past. Albeit the very ancient, pre-christian past. 

It's mostly the kids who do anything to celebrate Halloween (which they pronounce /'xa-lo-in/), while the older generations do more of an All Saint's Day. They visit their families and leave flowers on the graves of people the know who have passed away. Most of the teachers at my school are doing this this weekend. Which by the way, is a long weekend, or "puente" (bridge) in Spanish, so we get Thursday and Friday off. 

At the school, we had some Halloween celebrations, thanks mainly to the art teacher.

Halloween!

Crows and bats and some kind of ghost hanging from the ceiling. The students are gathered around the pumpkins they carved in art class.

SpoooOOOOoooky check-out desk.

They also showed a movie as an option instead of classes after lunch on Wednesday. I worked with the English club CUALE, but only two students showed up. The movie was SAW. Apparently Spanish kids are more desensitized than American kids, because even the little ones seemed fine as they went out to the bus.