January-April

In Salas for the annual soup festival.

It has been almost three months since I last wrote and a lot has happened. Yet, at the same time, nothing much has happened. I know that is a weird sentence and probably doesn't make a whole lot f sense, but it is true. In the last three months I have been spending more time with my host family and friends and getting to know them better.

Making a Catalan dinner in Sweden.
(Estefania, Berta, Me, and Lovisa)

I also went to Sweden for a 10 day trip with school. It was a trip offered to all of the kids in my grade, but in the end, only 9 of us went. In the end I think it was better because I got to know the kids from the other classes really well and we had an amazing time!! Sweden in the beginning of February is incredibly beautiful (and also incredibly cold!).We spent one week in northern Sweden with a host family and then 3 days in Stockholm with just the class.

Umea (northern Sweden) was the best part of the trip because we really got to see what living in Sweden was like. The host family I was matched up with was great and we learned a lot from each other! While there, we did as many things as we could in the snow because here in Spain it hardly snows. We went sledding, cross country skiing, hiking and much more. I really like how they spend a lot of time outside despite the cold weather.

Only about two weeks ago the Swedish kids came here, to Mataró, for a week. While they we here, we had amazing weather and it was warm enough and sunny enough to go to the beach. (The first day all of the Swedish kids got sunburnt because they neglected to listen to the whole sunscreen speech haha.)

In Stockholm with Anastasia.

In the past few months I have also been participating in a musical at a local theater in Mataró. It is called "El Soldadet de Plom" which literally means the "lead soldier." In English the title of it is actually the "Tin Soldier" and it is a piece by Hans Christian. It is something I love getting to be a part of it because I am able to be a part of an amazing group of people outside of my host family or school friends.We have just had our first public performance of the musical and have four more shows.

The theater also is head of many of the festivals here in Mataró and I often get to see a "behind the scenes" look of how it all works.  One of such festivals is Sant Jordi or Saint George. We celebrated it on April 23rd and it is breath-taking.

Here in Catalunya Valentine's Day is not celebrated. Instead, they celebrate Sant Jordi. It is a day celebrating a mix of love and literature. The literature comes from the international day of reading which happens to fall on the 23rd. However, the romantic side to this day comes from something entirely different; La Llegenda de Sant Jordi (The Legend of Saint George).

Celebrating Sant Jordi with friends.
(Correfoc)

The Catalan version of the legend goes that there once was a town in Catalunya which was under constant attack. The attacker was not another village though. The attacker was a dragon. Many of the brave knights went to try to kill the dragon, but non succeeded. So, they started to feed the dragon in hopes of calming it and everyday they sent someone to battle it to ware it's strength, but never kill it. Then the King decided to put all of the villager's names in a hat and the person chosen would be the human sacrifice for the dragon. Little did he know, his daughter, the beautiful princess, would be drawn out of the hat. Met with her horrible fate, the beautiful, young princess marched to her death with the townspeople in tow.

Suddenly, a chivalrous knight (Sant Jordi... then not a saint) comes to her rescue, killing the beastly dragon. The knight then fled, claiming that he was not worthy of someone as profoundly beautiful and courageous as the princess and they were never married.

The blood of the dragon was such a dark red that it sembled that of a rose. Sant Jordi gifted the princess a rose before he fled as a sign of his love for her. Every year on April 23rd, millions of Catalans buy roses as a sign of their affection for their loved ones.

The following link goes a little more in depth about the history of Sant Jordi. http://www.gencat.cat/catalunya/santjordi/eng/llegenda.htm

Personally, I went to Girona with my host family. It is a city origionally built in the 1600's and is home to one of the bigger Sant Jordi celebrations apart form Barcelona. There, the streets are filled with people all buying roses and books as well as enjoying the day with loved ones (It is also a big day for shopping much like our own Valentine's Day).

In Girona with my host sisters.

Correfoc

Later, in Mataró, there is something called the Correfoc. That is a big celebration in the town center in which a dragon is lit with fireworks and taken down the street. The whole city follows behind dancing to the beat of the drums and taking part in the celebration. We stop several times during the march to listen to the story of Sant Jordi being told. Each time we stop large sparklers are handed out to the festival workers and lit. They then slowly jog in a circle to the beat of drums and many people join in on the fun while dancing under the newly sparkling night (However, only those who come with the proper clothing take part in the "fire dance").

Correfoc

The thing I enjoyed most about the holiday was how much joy the people have. It is a day for being with family and loved ones as well as taking part in the culture of where you are living.

Walking through Mataró during the Correfoc.

Me and my mona :D

The following Monday my family celebrated Easter. We ate dinner with family and friends and everyone was gifted a "mona." A mona is basically a chocolate dessert that can be in the form of a cake, but it always contains a chocolate egg. My mona was a giant Easter Egg... literally bigger than my head!

Holiday Season

                Here in Spain, the people do things just a little bit differently than we do in the U.S. Then, you add in the traditions of Catalunya and things get even more interesting!!!

                

Christmas:

My host family and me with "Caga Tió" on Christmas morning.

The first of the festivities is Christmas. However, the people here do not open presents on Christmas Day. My host family and I had lunch with the entire family, on my host Dad’s side, on Christmas Day and the following day was proceeded by lunch at my host aunt’s house.

This is not to say that there are no presents opened on December 25^th.  A tradition here in Catalunya is called, “Caga Tió.” In English this means, “pooping log.” Sounds weird right?? Well, I thought so too! In the end though, I think it’s actually really adorable!

What happens is that you have a log decorated with a face, a hat (typical Catalunya style), and completed with a small blanket to keep him warm. The children believe that he is  really alive and that if you feed him well he will “poop” out lots of presents for you! So, you feed him things (much like we leave out cookies for Santa) and then on December 24^th and/or 25^th you get out sticks and hit the log to make it poop.

*Before we hit the log, I must add that you need to heat up your stick/pole in the oven (note: don’t actually turn oven on… not a good idea with small children! haha).  You must do this because a hot pole will hurt the log more, thus, adding to it’s production of more presents.

Heating up our poles.

Also, while the kids are in the kitchen heating up their poles and constantly asking if it’s time to go and hit the log, the parents are placing presents underneath blankets placed over the “Caga Tió” that will be removed after the beating and singing takes place.

We all got hats are one of our "Caga Tió" presents.

This process of heating up poles, hitting/singing, and opening presents continues until the log poops out potatoes.

*Lyrics to the song you sing while hitting the log:

Catalan: Caga Tió, ametlles i turró, si no cagues bé, un cop te donaré, TÉ, TÉ, TÉ!

English: Pooping log, almonds and turró(type of sweet), if you don’t poop good(or enough presents), I will hit you. Take it, take it, take it!

         I must say that as I write this it seems completely ridiculous. Whereas in real life, it is 

just so much fun and rather adorable.

Reis/Cavalcada:

"Patge."

The reason that the people here don’t open presents on Christmas morning is because instead of Santa Clause bringing presents, the Three Kings bring them. However, the Three Kings do not arrive to give Jesus his gifts until a few days after his birth. Meaning, that keeping with tradition, the people here open presents on the 6^th of January. This is also another family day filled with lunches and dinners.

This day is much like our Christmas in this way, they just do it a bit later and Santa is not the one bringing presents. (The people also eat incredible amounts of food in the holiday season seeing as how they celebrate not one or two days of holidays with family, but have at least four days of eating if you count the two different sides of the family.)

             

         Along with Reis, comes the Cavalcada. This is a parade the night before (Jan. 5^th) that includes the Reis (the white king, the red king, and the black king). The streets in my town on this night were filled with an estimated +50,000 people who had shown up to collect candy and hand cards to the Kings. Younger children are also allowed to climb the floats and hand-deliver their cards to the Kings, while other older children hand their cards to the helpers who then hand them to the King on that particular float.

               

In the parade for the "Reis" of Mataró!

            One of my favorite things about this was the fact that I actually got to participate in the parade. I was a “patge” for the White King. A “patge” I would loosely say is somewhat like a Christmas Elf, therefore, helps the Kings.

The White King is always the first one and is followed by the Red King and ultimately the Black King. It was so much fun to get to walk down the streets of Mataró, meanwhile it seemed the entire city had shown up to see the Kings and hand cards to the other “patges” and me.

In addition to this, it seems everyone is in search of candy and is extremely overjoyed when showered upon by candy. Or if not showered upon, yelling for candy. Overall, something I will never forget and feel extremely lucky to have gotten to do!

                New Year:

                New Year is yet another thing that is celebrated differently here in Spain. My host family and I went to a friend’s house to celebrate. At midnight everyone watches the television program in their region… We watched the Catalunya one.

All have some sort of bell tower and when the bell tolls, the people eat a series of 12 grapes in correspondence with the 12 tolls. After, everyone jumps up and gives everyone two kisses, one on eat cheek, and wishes them a happy new year.

                After midnight, around 1 a.m. everyone goes out to party. All of the kids 16 and older mostly go to discotecas, while others go to parties organized by local organizations or companies. I went to the discoteca with my friends from school and my younger host sisters went to a party at the theater in which we all participate. Around 6 a.m. the people start to slowly go home and this pretty much sums up the New Year.  

Random:

Other than all of this, everything has continued to follow the normal schedule that has been put in place. School, musical, and flamenco are all things that I find “normal” now.  My host family and I are all comfortable with each other and they treat me like one of them. It is really nice to actually feel like part of their family. It was hard to imagine feeling that way before coming here, but now that I am here, it’s just something that happened.

I also go into Barcelona whenever I can and over Christmas Break I had many opportunities to go in with my AFS friends and explore.  It is an incredible city and have fallen in love with it!