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| Andrea Gibson inspired |
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| Inspired by Colmenar Viejo |
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Art
Since I spend a lot of time each day commuting, I usually read or draw on the train. Here are some of my creations.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
The Holidays
In Spain (it seems to me) the holidays are a two-week period of time in which everybody eats a lot, drinks a lot, and spends a lot of time with family and close friends. Not only does everyone have Christmas off, but generally Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, and Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos (The Epiphany/Three Kings Day) as well, so there are a lot of festivities. I spent all of break in Burgos, a really nice city about two and a half hours by car north of Colmenar.
I had a really nice, relaxing and interesting break overall. The only day that was really hard for me was Christmas, which isn't really celebrated here by most people. On Christmas Eve we had a big family dinner, and went to bed pretty late. I didn't really know what to expect Christmas Day, except I knew we were going to a restaurant for a big lunch with a lot of family. This turned out to be pretty much all we did, and while I enjoyed the food immensely (it was several courses and very fancy and delicious. We were eating for 4 hours, not even joking!) it was hard to not have a tree or presents and most importantly, my family. However I skyped them that night for a good while and that really helped.
New Years Eve was a lot of fun. At 7 PM there was a 4 kilometer race called the San Silvestre in Burgos. There is also one in Madrid and many of the cities and pueblos of Spain of varying distances, but all on the same night. I ran with my uncle and his friend and it was freezing and raining but possibly the most fun race I have ever run (even though I nearly was trampled at the starting line because there were over 5,000 participants). People were running in costumes and some in very small bathing suits...haha. After the race, at around 10:30, we had a big dinner, and when we finished it was only about 40 minutes to midnight, so we all grabbed grapes and sat around watching the TV broadcasting from Puerta del Sol in Madrid (THE place to go for New Years - like Times Square). When the clock there made the 12 chimes of the new year, you have to eat a grape and every chime, and if you can eat them all it's supposed to be good luck. The thing is the grapes here all have seeds, which people generally don't eat, so it makes it harder to try and take the seeds out of your mouth while eating the next grape and next and so on.
(I just ate the seeds...)
And can you guess what we did New Years Day? That's right! A big family lunch! It's really quite amazing how much we ate over the course of the holidays. The thing is, my host-grandmother makes amazing food, so I didn't mind at all, haha. We also had a big lunch on Tres Reyes Magos. Dia de Reyes was a really fun day for me. The night beforehand, there was a HUGE and incredible parade that I swear the entire city crowded to see. Rather than trying to decribe it all, I'll just post pictures. That night we also cleaned our shoes and left them out for the Kings' to put presents in. We watched some of the parade from the apartment and then my host mom, brother and I went downtown to see the kings visit the "Belen" and speak from the windows.
The next morning, we woke up to find presents in our shoes! I was really surprised because I wasn't expecting a gift, (simply because I knew that my family wasn't big on giving gifts - they generally buy themselves the "gifts" they need) but in my shoes there was sandals, a wallet and jewelry from Nigeria! After everyone opened their presents we had breakfast and went to my host-great-grandmother's apartment to watch Daniel and two other small cousins open more presents from the "Reyes". Here I was surprised yet again with a handmade wooden journal and new shoes! ( I had been needing new shoes). I feel so grateful for my family, who are all so kind and have welcomed me into their family and have made me feel very cared for.
So those were all the Holidays during break, but I was also able to do a lot around Burgos. I visited part of the Cathedral in the center of town - it's construction began in 1221, and is enormous as well as amazingly beautiful. I was also able to visit two other churches and a monastery where 20 monks still live, all of which were amazing not only in their architecture but their collections of art, books and clothing from the 12th-18th centuries. I find it baffling that there are books that are older than my country! I also visited the Museum of Human Evolution, which I LOVED. Not only is the museum incredibly interesting, but the building itself is an architectural beauty. There are NO supporting columns within it, so it is very open (other than the exhibits themselves). The building is supported by these giant red X's on the outsides and beams that cross overhead. The reason the museum was created is because a few years ago they began paying attention to an archeological site a few miles from Burgos and found an incredible amount of fossils from the Middle Pleistocene, and some much earlier as well. In an attempt to keep this post a little shorter, here are some links if you're interested:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100714/world/museum-of-human-evolution-bares-it-all.317769
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atapuerca_Mountains
I hope everyone had some wonderful holidays! Feliz Año Nuevo a todos!
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| Burgos is famous from the epic poem called Cantar de Mio Cid, which is about a man being expelled from Burgos and needing to conquer another part of Spain to regain his honour (I studied this some in Lengua). This is the statue of Cid. |
I had a really nice, relaxing and interesting break overall. The only day that was really hard for me was Christmas, which isn't really celebrated here by most people. On Christmas Eve we had a big family dinner, and went to bed pretty late. I didn't really know what to expect Christmas Day, except I knew we were going to a restaurant for a big lunch with a lot of family. This turned out to be pretty much all we did, and while I enjoyed the food immensely (it was several courses and very fancy and delicious. We were eating for 4 hours, not even joking!) it was hard to not have a tree or presents and most importantly, my family. However I skyped them that night for a good while and that really helped.
New Years Eve was a lot of fun. At 7 PM there was a 4 kilometer race called the San Silvestre in Burgos. There is also one in Madrid and many of the cities and pueblos of Spain of varying distances, but all on the same night. I ran with my uncle and his friend and it was freezing and raining but possibly the most fun race I have ever run (even though I nearly was trampled at the starting line because there were over 5,000 participants). People were running in costumes and some in very small bathing suits...haha. After the race, at around 10:30, we had a big dinner, and when we finished it was only about 40 minutes to midnight, so we all grabbed grapes and sat around watching the TV broadcasting from Puerta del Sol in Madrid (THE place to go for New Years - like Times Square). When the clock there made the 12 chimes of the new year, you have to eat a grape and every chime, and if you can eat them all it's supposed to be good luck. The thing is the grapes here all have seeds, which people generally don't eat, so it makes it harder to try and take the seeds out of your mouth while eating the next grape and next and so on.
(I just ate the seeds...)
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| Me and my uncle before the race |
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| FOOD |
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| New Years Eve! |
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| Traditional Holiday time sweets! Turron and polverones, so yum. |
And can you guess what we did New Years Day? That's right! A big family lunch! It's really quite amazing how much we ate over the course of the holidays. The thing is, my host-grandmother makes amazing food, so I didn't mind at all, haha. We also had a big lunch on Tres Reyes Magos. Dia de Reyes was a really fun day for me. The night beforehand, there was a HUGE and incredible parade that I swear the entire city crowded to see. Rather than trying to decribe it all, I'll just post pictures. That night we also cleaned our shoes and left them out for the Kings' to put presents in. We watched some of the parade from the apartment and then my host mom, brother and I went downtown to see the kings visit the "Belen" and speak from the windows.
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| Oh man I loved these guys so much. |
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| giant bird? |
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| see how crowded the street is? That's how it was for about 2 miles. |
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| they were also throwing candy |
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| later the Kings spoke from their windows, telling everyone to be good and sleep early so they could deliver the presents. |
The next morning, we woke up to find presents in our shoes! I was really surprised because I wasn't expecting a gift, (simply because I knew that my family wasn't big on giving gifts - they generally buy themselves the "gifts" they need) but in my shoes there was sandals, a wallet and jewelry from Nigeria! After everyone opened their presents we had breakfast and went to my host-great-grandmother's apartment to watch Daniel and two other small cousins open more presents from the "Reyes". Here I was surprised yet again with a handmade wooden journal and new shoes! ( I had been needing new shoes). I feel so grateful for my family, who are all so kind and have welcomed me into their family and have made me feel very cared for.
So those were all the Holidays during break, but I was also able to do a lot around Burgos. I visited part of the Cathedral in the center of town - it's construction began in 1221, and is enormous as well as amazingly beautiful. I was also able to visit two other churches and a monastery where 20 monks still live, all of which were amazing not only in their architecture but their collections of art, books and clothing from the 12th-18th centuries. I find it baffling that there are books that are older than my country! I also visited the Museum of Human Evolution, which I LOVED. Not only is the museum incredibly interesting, but the building itself is an architectural beauty. There are NO supporting columns within it, so it is very open (other than the exhibits themselves). The building is supported by these giant red X's on the outsides and beams that cross overhead. The reason the museum was created is because a few years ago they began paying attention to an archeological site a few miles from Burgos and found an incredible amount of fossils from the Middle Pleistocene, and some much earlier as well. In an attempt to keep this post a little shorter, here are some links if you're interested:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100714/world/museum-of-human-evolution-bares-it-all.317769
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atapuerca_Mountains
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| (not my picture) |
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| The famous Cathedral. |
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| Monastery |
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| My host- aunt, grandmother, brother and mom (: and me |
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| And here's an awkward picture of me to finish up this post. |
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