Following my Christmas adventure, I came back to Spain (and
was quite relieved to be back in a country in which I speak the language). I
passed out after Christmas, quite exhausted. But my lovely priest here, Raul,
invited me to a prayer group with some people roughly my age. One of the women
is just a little younger than me (though she looks 2 years old than me) and
invited me to celebrate New Year's Eve with her family! Que maja. I accepted,
as my previous New Years plans included buying twelve grapes, eating them at
the stroke of midnight, and going to bed. Lame, I know.
Instead, I dressed up and went over to visit with her
family. It was a delightful and cultural experience. Her family welcomed me,
even showed me pictures from their son's wedding. I ate rich, typical New Years
food, which, similar to Christmas, is sea food. They were nice enough to make it
without shrimp for me (I'm allergic). It was delicious. A third of a fish, avocado
filled with tuna, Spanish ham (so much better than American 'ham'), bread, and
wine and beer from their vineyard. We had good conversation, and I was amused
by the little nieces, who insisted on dancing with me, and told me all the
English words they knew. It was a fantastic evening.
A momentary explanation of grapes. After we finished up
dinner (about 11:30) we took several pictures, and waited for midnight, holding
tiny wooden baskets filled with 12 grapes each. In Spain, there is no ball
drop. Instead, they eat a grape with each stroke of midnight. Ours were
vineyard grapes, authentic and seeded (which made them kind of difficult to eat
with each stroke). They also have a tradition of wearing red, singing villancicos
(carols) and partying into the early morning. Several times I was asked,
"What do you eat on New Years?" "What are your New Years traditions?"
My answer was always, "I usually watch the ball drop in New York."
Lame, I know. I did get some amusement out of explaining how people shoot
blanks on New Year's ("You mean with guns? That they have in their
house?") though that probably didn't do anything positive for American
stereotypes. In truth, I don't really have any New Years traditions. Perhaps
I'll have to import some from Spain back to the States.
Afterwards, we went out and partied. I made it until 3:30
am, and then I was done (this was excellent for me, truth be told). My friends
weren't even close to being done. They bought this pass that got them in for
free to three bars, with a drink in each one. When I left at 3:30, we'd only
been to one bar, and that wasn't even part of the pass deal. We got into that
one for free! As you can imagine, the 1st is a national holiday, mostly because
it's an important feast day, but also probably because everyone's passed out
until the afternoon. (because in Spain, bars aren't just for 20 somethings.
Everyone goes out and parties.)
So that's New Years in Spain. I hope to have an adventure in
Salamanca in a couple weeks (the bus leaves at 5:45 am, hooray) but coming up
in less than a month is my trip to London and Wales, which I just booked
hostals for (and got a killer bus ticket from London-Cardiff). I'll try and write
up a blog with some cheap London travel tips as well (if only the relationship
between Pound and Euro was a little more in my favor. Damn you crisis!) Write
more soon! (oh and I'll finish the promised Church blog as well)
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