Dear readers,
If you were lured in by the all CAPS lettering, then I will explain to you just exactly what those loud words mean. First, a brief background:
- School let out for winter break on the 23rd of December, and I am posting this on my final day before heading back tomorrow morning. I'm living in a Catholic country, which means that the Christmas season is spread out and celebrated more with the coming of the new year and Epiphany, and break is a bit longer. This doesn't stop the fact that returning to school tomorrow will be like taking the cold shower I need but don't want.
Holidays 2011 and a change of families: Christmas Eve I went to mass for the first time ever and had an overall nice time singing the catalan lyrics in English, which was entertaining for the grandmother sitting in front of me. Before mass, I was at Sitjar, where the whole family was together to eat the Christmas meal. On Christmas Day, I ate another giant midday meal with all of the other side of the family, and then headed back to Vic to collect my bags and prepare for a change of location. It was a bittersweet moment, but a new part of the exchange experience that I was looking forward to as well.
Tona y els Capdevilas: Tona is my new location, and the Capdevilas are the new family with whom I am living. Tona is a town (population 8,000) about 10 minutes south of Vic. The Capdevilas are an amazing family: I live with 3 host sisters between ages 14-16 (Guiomar, Nani, y Claudia), Carme, Marc, and two insane dogs (Brownie y Neula) that I love to death. Although Tona is smaller than Vic, I'm still very comfortable here, and I love the avenues. There is a beautiful castle (it's actually a church) on the mini mountain overlooking the town, which is also a very helpful as a map point. I'll be hiking up that direction sometime soon. I'll be sure to put up a pictures as soon as I have them.
Holidays 2012: Bon Any Nou! I celebrated the New Year with some friends and partook in what I think is a very fun tradition: As the old year passes into the new, each person eats 12 grapes (one with each chime of the clock: they have the official clock chiming on national TV)! It sounds ridiculous, but I loved it! Instead of Santa Clause, here they celebrate the coming of the 3 Kings (on Epiphany) who enter houses to leave presents with keys given to them, or through the balcony (whichever is easier I suppose). Children write letters to the kings and their representatives, sit on their laps, and the night before El Dia dels Reis there is a giant parade. The amazing part about the beginning of the parade are the torches that are lit and left to burn all along the sides of the streets before the procession of the kings and their representatives (dressed up because they are from foreign lands). I´ve added a couple of photos on the bottom which will help this explanation make a lot more sense. It´s just a bit hard to describe how awesome it is.
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| Lighting of the torches |
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| FOC! |
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| Sparklers have nothing on these. |
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| Everyone loves a good bonfire. |
- I have more photos, but sorting through them is not going over very well right now.
- A few extra things: Gilmore Girls is just as good in Castellano as it is in English, Chuck Norris jokes are international, I know very little about what goes on in Canada, I love living in the Catalan Nation and continuing to grow here, it´s easier than you think to explain in a foreign language how unconstitutional the NDAA is (in regard to the small McCarthyistic add on of indefinite detention based on suspicion), and everyone knows Iowa at least for one day when the caucus comes around. Also, my real family is coming to visit in March (minus Molly), and I am super excited!!!
Until next time, adéu i vaig i bé!
