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.

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

First!!

Hello. I'm currently in the SeaTac airport, waiting for my flight to Frankfurt, and now is as good a time as ever to start the blog I've been telling people that I'd do.

First off, congratulations to my mother, who did not cry when she left me at security. Kudos.

Here's what my next few hours look like: flying SeaTac to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Madrid. The original iternerary said I'd get in by 11:00 pm, but the guy at the ticket counter said it'd be more like 9:00 pm. Woo! After time changes its over 11 hours of flying (I think??? The whole thing is very confusing). From there it's crash at a hotel outside the airport, then get up at the crack of dawn to navigate the Madrid metro to the bus station, then bus five or six hours to Lugo where I finally get to meet María in person. She's been the one who's been in contact with me since july-ish to get me all up to speed on everything about the school.

Right, the school. For those of you that don't know, I'll be working at IES Fontem Albei in A Fonsagrada, which is a tiny village in the mountains in Galicia. Map:

Galicia is in the northwest corner.

And here's a zoomed in one that shows Lugo, the town where I'll be living.

Lugo is a roman city and a college town, I'll tell you more about it once I've seen it for myself.

And one more that shows (hopefully, if the resolution is good enough) A Fonsagrada, which is the village the school is in. A Fonsagrada means 'the sacred fountain' in case you were interested. I'll tell you more about it too once I've been there. (and have pictures.)

Map nerds, I'm sorry there's no scale on any of these, but the distance from Lugo to A Fonsagrada isn't that far.

Let's see, what else. My computer and camera were stolen out of my car while I was visiting at Sarah's, and this new machine arrived the day before yesterday (Thanks, Evan, for helping me find a decent cheap one). It's been a pain in my ass. Not because it was a super nice computer, but because of all the data I lost. Namely, all the photos I took on my photoshoot of B'ham a few weeks ago. So, bellinghamsters, I'd love any photos you could send me! Campus, downtown, Lakewood, the bay, maybe some pictures of your beautiful selves so I can share them with my students.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll probably do another pretty soon.